


A Battle Fantasy on Remnant

by Berix



Category: Epic Battle Fantasy, RWBY
Genre: Action/Adventure, Canon-Typical Violence, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Crossover, Dimension Travel, F/M, Fluff and Crack, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 18:54:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 31,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25830172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Berix/pseuds/Berix
Summary: After an accident occurs during their travels, the Epic Battle Fantasy team ends up in Remnant. Not entirely displeased with their circumstances, they decide to make the most of the situation. How will their high-tech gadgets, powerful magic, and of course, swords, affect the world of Remnant? Quite a bit, I'd say.also, tags are hard, and making my notes show up in the right chapter is harder.
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 27





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> A quick foreword for those discovering this who aren't versed in Epic Battle Fantasy (likely most people who see it, given the rather small size of the EBF community compared to the RWBY crossover community). Epic Battle Fantasy is a turn based RPG series available on Steam, with 5 (the game with story is mostly based on) costing only $20, a quite nice pickup if you want some RPG fun filled with references to everything from Dragonforce to Fate/stay night. 
> 
> I can't promise that I will always succeed, but I will be trying to explain a good number of EBF elements in this story, and if you need clarification on anything feel free to PM me and I shall do my best to respond promptly. With that out of the way, please enjoy...

**A Battle Fantasy in Remnant**

**Chapter One**

**"We just got here and the wildlife already hates us!"**

**-]l[-**

Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy glanced up from his cup of cocoa as his close friend and Deputy Headmistress Glynda Goodwitch strode into the room. She carried with her several sheets of paper, folders of documents, and the look of someone on a mission. 

"Ozpin!" she called, and after making sure his attention was on her, slapped a folder of documents down onto the table, dislodging a number of pens. "We just had another group of applicants." 

Ozpin let out a hum, as he picked up the folder and began to flip through it. "And what's special about these ones? You've only come to me for Ms. Belladonna and Mr. Arc before. You know I trust in your judgement." 

"Not to deny students, apparently." Glynda muttered crossly. "The last four in the folder. They all applied together, and I felt that you would find them interesting." 

Only a few pages into the folder, Ozpin skimmed through the next few dozen applicants before arriving at the four that Glynda pointed out. "Matt, Natalie, Lance, and Anna... interesting... no last names, and I can't think of any colors off the top of my head... Most interesting." 

Glynda shook her head. "Well, yes. But I was more so referring to their lacking credentials and inability to write an entrance letter." 

Ozpin glanced back to the sheets of paper, before chuckling at the transcripts. 

**Name:** matt 

**Previous Schooling Experience:** none 

**Age:** 17 

**Letters of Recommendation:** a what now 

**Semblance:** Natz says i dont have one of those 

**Weapons:** swords 

"See what I mean?" Glynda threw her hands into the air. "Mr. Matt can't even capitalize correctly, and we expect him to become a Huntsman? And just because his is the worst doesn't mean the others are that much better. The Natalie girl's is the best, and even she provides a nonexistent college as her previous schooling experience. Plus, one of them is even below the normal age of acceptance." 

Quickly, Ozpin read over the other three to find that Glynda was correct. Before he looked back to Glynda to make a decision however, he first took a look at the pictures included with every application. After a moment of gazing, his eyes narrowed and he looked more closely at one of them. Finally, he looked back to Glynda, who immediately scoffed and threw her folder at him, an easy catch for the experienced Huntsman. 

"Damnit, Ozpin. I know that look from Mr. Arc. Can we, for once, deny a student even if they 'look interesting' or have some kind of 'latent potential?'" 

Ozpin stared at his friend, before his calm expression formed into a slight smile. "There's still initiation to go through anyways... I say we let them in. They look interesting." 

Glynda let out a sigh before turning to leave. "It's on your head if one of them turns out to be a facist dictator." 

"A risk I'll gladly take for such interesting new students." 

**-]l[-**

"Oh look! Another blond swordsman... I wonder if its just fate for us swordsmen to be blond... Cmon Natz, it's always happening, in Final F*ntasy, X*noblade, everything!" 

Jaune Arc had a scowl on his face as he heard the voices behind his back. He had finally managed to find his locker, thanks to the help of Ruby, and already he was getting made fun of—for being blond and having a sword of all things. 

He waved Ruby and Yang on toward the cliff where Initiation was happening before he turned, ready to give a comeback to the gossipers. But, when they came into view he was forced to rethink his plan. Entering into the room were two older teens, one, a blond-haired boy wearing... was that a pirate outfit? And here Jaune thought his hoodie would be out of place. The second was an ginger-haired girl in a black dress, with various bows and amulets clipped onto it. In her hand she carried a black staff that was a good bit taller than herself. 

Jaune forced himself to close his mouth and jerked his eyes away from the ginger's... sizeable assets in time to refocus on the conversation the two were having as they walked to the cliff for the Beacon initiation. Following them, both because they seemed to know where they were going, and also to eavesdrop, err, _listen_ to their conversation. 

"At least he has a shield, that's gotta be unique as a blond swordsman," Jaune caught the boy saying, stretching as he did so. 

"I suppose that's true... hey, Matt. What's stopping you from getting a shield too? It would certainly keep you from getting hit so much." 

The girl sounded much calmer than the boy, likely used to his antics, a feeling that Jaune knew well from living with his sisters. They had almost reached the cliffs now, and Jaune could see students lining up, including Ruby and her sister. Thankfully, there was still enough time before he got there for him to overhear the last of the conversation that he had been listening to. 

"If I use a shield then my attacks won't be as strong. Plus, even if I get hit a lot I know that you'll always be able to patch me up!" 

The girl, Natz, let out a sigh. "Even if I didn't patch you up, I doubt anything short of Godcat herself could keep you down." 

"Damn right! It's a secret gene found in all blond swordsmen... un-put-down-able-ness!" 

And for just a moment, despite the obvious insanity present in the two's conversation, Jaune took those words, and he remembered then. Perhaps these people weren't that bad after all. 

And then Matt spoke again and Jaune lost all respect for him. "Say, Natz... Do you ever wonder where all the text boxes went?" 

**-]l[-**

"I wonder what these launchpads are made of..." Lance mused, crouched on one of many metal rectangles sat within the ground. He was currently located at the site of Beacon's initiation, at the top of a cliff overlooking 'The Emerald Forest.' 

"Nothing I'm letting you steal. Besides, we should be paying attention to the professor right now, I'm sure he's giving some good advice on how initiation works." Anna, one of Lance's closest friends, was the one who spoke. She stood to his side on another of the launchpads. 

Lance gave a hum of agreement and turned his attention to the speaker. Natalie might've given a name to the face that morning, but that had been at least thirty minutes ago and, well, if it wasn't guns or bombs Lance had no reason to remember it. 

"—That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years." 

Lance tuned out the shriek of a nearby girl before turning to Anna. "What say you, hunting buddy? Want to become, _Huntsmen buddies_?" 

Anna let out an aggrieved sigh, a sound that Lance was very used to from their time working together, before agreeing. 

"—make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die." 

A slightly manic grin appeared on Lance's face at the words. "Oh, I like this guy." 

Immediately he began thinking of what tools he could use, which guns, and so on. The headmaster might still've been talking, but Lance trusted Anna to recognize when he was lost in thought, and remember any important parts of the speech. 

He finished planning just in time to hear all of the other students preparing for the launch, and in preparation he took the Nitro Bomber XL from his back, swinging it around to a ready position. With a grin to Anna, he was sent flying into the air, the powerful springs of the launchpad sending him soaring. 

Within a few seconds, the sky was filled with prospective students, and Lance was able to see them all performing various feats of agility to slow their decent toward the forest below. Well, most of them were doing that, at least. Some just seemed to want to fly as far as possible. 

Taking stock of his mid-air surroundings, Lance identified Anna's figure, flying somewhat parallel to him, and he spun in the air, pointing the Nitro Bomber at an angle that, if he did his 'math' right, should send him right to Anna. 

An ear-splitting boom erupted from the cannon as it sent a blast of explosive energy flying toward the forest floor, and the recoil of the shot sent Lance himself spinning through the air, hopefully in the direction of Anna. 

If the hand that had just snatched the neckline of his jacket was any indication, it had worked. 

Immediately they began falling faster, Lance's momentum having canceled out most of Anna's own, and the forest floor began approaching rapidly. 

"Hold on," Lance's soon-to-be partner yelled over the roar of the wind. A moment later a soothing note was played from her ocarina, and the winds around the pair picked up, the two were soaring along, the wind supporting their magically lightened bodies. 

After just a few moments of flying in that manner, the wind lessened, and the pair dropped a dozen feet to the forest floor. Hauling himself to his feet, Lance glanced at Anna, their eyes meeting, before he reached into a pocket of his jacket and withdrew a compass. Glancing at it for a moment, he pointed through the forest. 

"That's north, so to the northern end we go, I suppose. I wonder what kind of animals live here to get the headmaster to tell us to fight or die?" 

"Probably nothing, so don't expect me to just let you kill everything we come across." 

"Aww, but the headmaster said to!" 

"I don't care! They're probably just some nice bunnies." 

**-]l[-**

"On second thought, the headmaster was correct, and they are not just some nice bunnies." 

"And to think you and Natz have problems with me nuking things. This is the perfect example of why we shouldn't let the wildlife grow too strong!" 

"Calling this wildlife is a disgrace to wildlife the world over. Clearly its some mutation brought upon by rampant militarization. Duck!" 

"Thanks... And even when I was in command I never messed with bio-warfare. I know when to be nice to the planet." 

"We both know that's not true. You literally carry poison gas in your 'hammerspace.'" 

"Sigh. I suppose you're right. Well, as the resident nature expert here, do you have any idea why wolves suddenly turned black and got bone armor?" 

"Nope! Also did you just verbalize a sigh? You know that the rules have changed and you don't have to do that anymore, right?" 

"Habit." 

"Suuuure. Then as the resident murder-expert here, you got any suggestions on how to kill our doggy friends faster?" 

"A few. Stand back." 

A deafening barrage of sound filled the clearing as bullets sprayed through the lupine Grimm, killing them near-instantly. A moment after it began, the hail of metal stopped, and the area was clear of the bone-clad menaces. 

"I see your tank is here too." 

"Neon Valkyrie is a miracle of technology! You think I would leave her behind just because we got sucked into another world? My entire arsenal is here, in fact!" 

"I worry for this world." 

"Only the nature-y parts, I'm sure. Now, the northern end of the forest shouldn't be too much further. Let us proceed." 

**-]l[-**

"I wonder how NoLegs is doing?" Matt spun Heaven's Gate in one hand before slicing it through a Beowolf's neck. "I mean, he must be bored back at the school with no adventures to go on and no foes to defeat." 

By his side, his girlfriend Natalie brought a fireball into existence before sending it flying at a group of Ursai that had grouped too close together, turning them to charcoal. She paused her casting, taking a moment to think about Matt's question. 

"I'm sure he's doing fine. Are you more worried about him then Anna and Lance?" 

"Pssh, they'll be fine. It's NoLegs' entertainment I'm truly worried about." And with that, Matt flung his sword spiralling through the last few Grimm, catching it easily as it flew back to him. 

Their one-sided stomp finished, the pair began to journey to the north. After a few minutes of walking through underbrush and decimating the occasional Grimm, they arrived at their destination, a ruined stone temple, overgrown with vines and filled with chess pieces resting on pedestals. 

"I think we should take one of each just to be safe," Matt proclaimed, leaning on his sword as he and Natz discussed which piece to take. 

"No! It's obvious that it's supposed to be one each. What if by taking others we ruined someone's chance to get into the academy?" 

"Well, if they don't get one, then it's their own fault. They should've been faster." Indeed, Matt and Natalie were the first team to reach the temple, and thusly had the first pick of the items found there. 

Eventually, they settled on taking a Black Queen, and had just retrieved it in time to see another pair of prospective students jog into the clearing. 

"Aww, we're not first!" 

The speaker was a girl with waist-length blond hair, a leather jacket, shorts, and a pair of gauntlets that had just discharged a shell into the air. By her side was another girl, this one black-haired, wearing black and white clothes and a bow tied to her hair. 

"It wasn't a race," the bow-girl murmured, walking over to the relics and selecting one for her and her partner. 

The blond seemed slightly disappointed at her lack of energy, but put a grin on her face anyways. "We'll make a thrillseeker of you eventually, Blake." She turned to Matt and Natalie and spoke again. "I'm Yang, this is my partner Blake. Howbout' you, handsome?" 

"Natalie," the redhead took the lead in the conversation. "And this is my _partner_ , Matt." 

Noting the emphasis, Yang took a step back and held her hands up. "Easy there, I'm not looking to mess with anything. Say, have either of you seen my sister? Bout this tall, black hair, carries a scythe, wears a cloak?" 

When everyone present shook their heads, Yang let out a sigh. "Well, I hope she's doing alright." 

A moment later, Matt flipped his sword in hand and pointed it into the sky to where a girl in red hung onto the feathers of a giant Grimm raven for dear life just feet away from a second huntress in white. "Is that her?" 

"Yep. Five Lien that ice-queen is her partner?" When nobody responded, Yang glanced back up to see what everyone was paying so much attention to and was just in time to see Ruby lose her grip. 

A quiet yell began, slowly growing louder as Ruby started falling toward the ground. Right when Ruby was about to hit the ground, a burst of wind erupted, catching her in her fall and settling her onto the ground. 

"Thaaaaaanks!" Ruby shouted, looking around for her savior. 

"No problem," came the response as another pair of students stepped out of the trees. Matt recognized them, having saved the world multiple times alongside them. Anna, the (sometimes overly-) nature-loving archer, and Lance, a gun-loving lunatic. Together with Matt and Natalie (and NoLegs!) they made up the Epic Battle Fantasy team. 

Currently, Anna was dressed in a red dress. She had a small blue elephant on her head, and carried with here a bottle-covered bow, and an ocarina. Behind her came Lance, dressed in his usual black military clothes, cap included. Slung on his back was a large cannon, and holstered at his side was a smaller—though still sizeable—pistol. 

"Ohmygod, is that a tiny elephant!? Can I touch it?" Ruby was immediately by Anna's side, barely keeping a few feet of personal space between them as she questioned the green-haired girl on the choice of headgear. 

Anna was overwhelmed by the girl's attention, and gave in quite quickly. "Uh, sure, go ahead." 

While Ruby was fawning over Anna's elephant, another team arrived, seemingly having ridden to the temple on an Ursa. After it inevitably collapsed in death, its riders—a pink-haired girl and a black-haired boy—both joined the greater group. They introduced themselves as Nora and Ren, and retrieved a relic as they did so. 

"She's falling," Blake quietly commented, bringing the attention of the group back to the sky where, indeed, Ruby's partner had lost her grip and was falling toward the ground. Anna retrieved her Ocarina and was preparinged to summon another burst of wind to slow her fall, when two more figures came soaring through the air,—one a red-haired girl with a sword and a shield, and the other a blond-haired boy, also with a sword and shield. Matt recognized the boy as the one he had commented on earlier that day. 

All three flying students collided with each other, ending up in a heap beneath one of the many trees in the area, causing the standing students to give a simultaneous wince at the landing. Then there was the crack of wood breaking, and a tree was uprooted and flung toward the pile of students from somewhere in the treeline. 

Matt heard the blast of gunfire, and a micro-second later Ruby flew in front of him, crossing the land between the two groups of students in the blink of eye and coming to rest right in the path of the log, scythe already spinning to slice the wood apart. 

"You alright, Jaune?" Ruby asked the blond-haired boy she was defending, stabbing the scythe into the ground and aiming down the sniper sights for any targets within the forest. 

"Uh, yeah. Thanks," Jaune muttered, rising to his feet and offering to help Pyrrha and Weiss up, an offer that was only accepted by his partner. "We—that is Pyrrha and I—accidentially awoke a pair of Death Stalkers from the cave where they were staying. They've been following us all the way here." 

"Gotcha," Ruby nodded to her friend, before spinning her scythe and launching off toward the woods, right in time for the trees to explode into the clearing as the two Death Stalkers arrived. Firing once more to launch herself into the air, Ruby spun through the air, scythe prepared to slice through the Grimm. 

Unfortunately for her it was not to be. The other Death Stalker imposed itself into the line of her attack and caught the scythe blade with its stinger, sending Ruby flying into the ground. 

Matt caught the eye of Ruby's sister as she herself began moving to protect her sister, and within moments the two blonds were both standing in front of Ruby, their weapons readied. 

At an unspoken command, they both rushed forward, engaging their respective Death Stalkers in combat. Matt danced around its strikes and stabbed at weak points, while Yang just pummeled on the thing, taking hits like there was no tomorrow. Such an enemy was no real challenge against the swordsman who, just a few months previous, had saved the world. 

Within just a few seconds, Matt finished his own Death Stalker, impaling it with a blade of rock from beneath, stabbing it through its vulnerable underbelly, and he was able to turn to help Yang. Meanwhile Ruby had set up her sniper rifle once again and was taking pot shots at the scorpion Grimm. 

Once that was dealt with, the trio turned back to the rest of the group to find that they were engaged in a battle against a swarm of Ursai and Beowolves. Jaune and Pyrrha were back to back against a circle of Beowolves, the redhead seemingly tutoring Jaune mid-battle. Nora was in the thick of things, swinging her giant hammer like a vengeful war goddess, while Ren stood back and used his twin guns to take advantage of the openings she made. 

Beside Ren stood Lance, taking calculated shots with his hand cannon, firing off between two and six shots every couple of seconds. Anna and Natalie were taking shots with their own various types of magic, Weiss (as Ruby's partner had introduced herself) was freezing Grimm, and Blake was nowhere that Matt could see, hidden like a ninja. 

The tide of battle was already in the favour of the students, but once Matt, Yang, and Ruby finished their Grimm they were able to join and turn it from a one-sided battle to a rout. It was after the last of the Grimm was dissolving that Jaune let out a slight squeak and pointed a finger to the sky. "I-I was hoping that we'd seen the last of that one." In the sky above the group was the giant bird Grimm, the Nevermore. 

Yang's eyes erupted, going from a calm lilac to a burning red, and she yelled, "HOW MANY MORE GRIMM ARE THERE!? CAN I JUST ASK MY SISTER HOW HER DAY'S BEEN?!" It was clear to everyone present that she was about to explode, when Natalie stepped up and patted Yang on the shoulder. 

"It's fine, I've got this one." 

The redheaded magician raised her staff toward the Nevermore and focused her eyes slightly, before flicking the head of the staff downward slightly. A burst of energy emanated from the girl, but nothing seemed to happen. Ruby was about to ask, but Natalie raised one finger to request a moment, and then it happened. 

In the sky right below the Nevermore an elaborate magical circle appeared, filled with concentric circles and intersecting points. It spun rapidly, and then a moment later the sky where the Nevermore had been was filled with a massive glowing white beam of energy, erasing the Nevermore from existence and leaving nothing, not even feathers behind. 

When Weiss turned to look at Natalie after the attack, she seemed shocked that the mage didn't even look winded, but instead looked good as new, as if she had regained energy from the attack. 

"W-what the hell was that?" 

Natalie smiled, giving a peace sign with two fingers. "Magic!" And then she turned to the group and smiled like nothing had happened. "Alright! Let's grab our relics and get to the cliff!" 

**-]l[-**

High above the students, and on the cliff where they were supposed to head, stood Headmaster Ozpin and his Deputy Headmistress Glynda Goodwitch. One of them had a well-earned smirk of satisfaction, the other a flabbergasted expression. 

"I told you they would be interesting." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this is something new for me. Epic Battle Fantasy 5, a game I only just beat a few days ago (34 hours playtime) and RWBY, a show I watched on release for the first three seasons, and then dropped halfway through S4 and haven't watched since. This is gonna go amazingly, I'm sure.
> 
> I'll be taking some liberties with the exact effects of some EBF5 spells and weapons. For example, if Anna can make a 'hurricane' and 'tempest' then I suspect she can make more gusty winds. Additionally, the 'light' status effect, presumably makes people lighter. I'll be changing things like that.
> 
> Additionally, the EBF team I've taken here are all around level 36, and have beaten the final boss. They are endgame characters, and will be powerful as such. That said, a lot of their power is in Hax and attack potency, and less in durability, so I'm uncertain how they will scale to the RWBYverse.
> 
> RWBY-wise, it's been a couple years since I've seen the show, but I'll be doing my best to rewatch and get caught up on it while I write this. Until then, I hope my characterization is close enough to work for all of you RWBY fans.
> 
> If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them in review or PM, and besides that, I hope you all enjoyed this first chapter! No guarantees on when the next one comes out though. 
> 
> Fav/Follow if you enjoyed, and please leave a review, each one motivates me to write more!
> 
> Til next time.  
> -Berix


	2. Chapter 2

**A Battle Fantasy in Remnant**

**Chapter Two  
“Of course it’s magic, what else would it be?”**

**-]l[-**

The holoscreen behind Ozpin began changing once more, the pictures of team RWBY disappearing, and in their place the pictures of Matt, Natalie, Lance, and Anna appeared, sliding into line. Letters appeared under their names and began sliding into a list. 

Ozpin stood calmly on stage and watched as the four made their way to the stage. “And finally… Matt, Anna. Lance, and Natalie. The four of you retrieved the Black Queen pieces. From this day forward you shall be known as Team Marlin... led by Matt!” On the screen, the letters formed the acronym MALN. 

The assembled crowd cheered politely at the announcement of the last team, and soon spread apart to head off to their respective rooms. Ozpin gestured to the four newest teams to stay for a moment, and after the amphitheater had cleared of spectators he spoke once more. “All of you have been assigned dorms in building B-1, and details have been transferred to your Scrolls, along with information on the class schedule, facilities, maps, and mealtimes.” He paused, glancing at team MALN for a moment. “For those of you without Scrolls, I recommend heading to the Student Supplies office located on the second floor and speaking with Professor Greene about getting those. Best get on your way. Potential Huntsmen and Huntresses like yourselves need sleep.” 

The teams immediately separated, most heading toward the doors that led outside, while Natalie dragged Anna and Matt toward the stairwell, Lance following behind at a slower speed. Just as they were about to start climbing, Ozpin called out to them. “Oh, and if you wouldn’t mind meeting me in my office after getting your Scrolls, I have something I’d like to talk to you about.” 

Matt turned, climbing the stairs backward and shouted back, “Sure, old man. Whatever ya need.” 

Rolling his eyes, Ozpin turned and made his own exit from the room. “Hmph, so impolite.” His cane, The Long Memory, tapped softly against the carpeted floor of the room and his free hand soon snagged his cup from where he had left it at the entrance to the amphitheater. 

He walked slowly through the halls, sipping his cocoa, and thinking of his newest batch of students. Only time would tell if they were the ones that he had been looking for, but so far his expectations had not only been met, they had been exceeded. Miss Rose with her exceptional battle skills and silver eyes, Mister Arc with his remarkable learning ability and tactics, and of course, Miss Natalie with what she claimed to be magic. 

And if it was, then there were new players on the field. 

Soon, Ozpin reached his office, situated above the CCT and at the highest accessible point within Beacon. It was a simple room, a medium-sized circular area with a plain desk sat in the back. The walls of the room were filled with gears, except for the doors to the elevator and Ozpin’s sleeping chambers. However, the most noticeable point in the room was undoubtedly the ceiling. Partially open to the sky and rising into a turret, the entire thing was filled to the brim with gears of all sizes and shapes, all spinning as they produced a calming ticking sound. 

Ozpin strode through the elevator doors and took a seat in his chair, lacing his fingers together as he did so. It would still be a few minutes until MALN arrived, and he intended to make the most of it. A moment later Ozpin’s head hit the back of his chair, and a slow exhale of air was heard throughout the room. 

**-]l[-**

Matt led the way inside the Requisition Office, a small, square, plain room lined with shelves covered in every item that a student could need. At a counter in the middle of the room sat a brown-haired woman dressed smartly in slacks and a button up shirt. She glanced up at the newcomers, taking her eyes off a magazine she was reading, and spoke to them before returning to her reading. 

“What’ll it be?” Matt heard her ask, but was too busy to respond, busy inching his way toward the shelves lining the room. 

At the silence that met her question, she looked up again, this time taking in the four students. “Ah, so you’re the ones Oz mentioned. Hey! Stop that, Blondie!” 

Matt jerked his hand away from a jar of Dust, and spun around, giving a bright grin to the professor. “Stop what? I wasn’t stealing anything.” 

She responded with a disbelieving stare, and after a moment, Natalie stepped in, dragging Matt back to the group and apologizing to the professor. “Sorry, Matt still isn’t used to the whole ‘not stealing things’ thing, you’ll have to forgive him.” 

“Uh huh… well I’ll be needing you to keep an eye on him then. Theft is looked down on, and it’s my job as Head of Security to keep everyone in line. Now, what did you need from the office?” 

“Ah… I forgot. Lance, what was it again?” 

The boy being questioned reached into a jacket pocket to remove a small notebook, upon which Matt could see various scribbles and also the word ‘SCROLLS’ scrawled in all capital letters. “Ozpin wanted us to get Scrolls so that we’d be able to get inside our rooms… though I’m sure we could find easier ways inside that don’t involve invasive technology that’s obviously used to spy on us—ouch! Anna, I was only speaking the truth, no need to hit me!” 

The professor let out a sigh, and rolled her eyes at the party’s antics before rising from her desk and striding over to a cabinet set against the back wall. Matt stopped paying attention a few seconds later, as she began inputting a password, and instead browsed the rest of the supplies within the room, making a mental note for later. 

“Here you go,” Matt heard the professor say, before the whooshing of an object flying through the air caught his attention and he whipped his sword off his back and through the air to stop whatever vicious attack she was planning against him and his team. A moment later, his Scroll fell to the ground, sliced in two and sparking slightly. 

Matt blushed, “Oops, I hope I don’t need that…” 

An even longer sigh came from the professor this time, and after she rubbed her forehead for a moment she reassured the blonde. “As long as one of your teammates is with you, and or willing to lend you their Scroll, you will still be able to get into your room… You will need something for combat class though… take this, and don’t break it this time.” 

She waited for Matt to be looking at her before throwing the object, and he was careful to catch it with his hands, not his blade. Taking a look, it was small and shaped like a watch, and so he clasped it onto his wrist. A quiet beep later, and a small green light appeared on it. 

“Good, it works,” the professor muttered, before speaking up. “Now get out of my shop before you break anything else.” 

“Yes, ma’am!” Lance and Matt chorused, before the team left the room, headed off for… 

  
“Lance, where are we headed next?” 

“The headmaster’s office.” 

“And where is that?” 

“...” 

“Ah, good to know.” 

**-]l[-**

A small alarm sounded from Ozpin’s desk, bringing him awake, and he calmly leaned forward, retrieving his cup of cocoa from his desk and taking a quick sip to settle his nerves. That alarm was set to sound whenever the elevator leading to his office began moving. It was something that he had set when Glynda first caught him napping on the job and threatened to remove the cocoa packets from his desk. 

A few seconds later and Ozpin was leaning forward, fingers laced, and elbows rested on his desk when the door to his office slid open, allowing Matt and his team entrance. 

“You wanted to see us?” Matt questioned the headmaster, as his team spread out to stand in a line. 

“Yes… Did you know that Glynda didn’t want to let you into the school?” 

Ozpin could see Matt’s surprise at the change in subject. “The blonde lady who keeps glaring at me?” 

Ozpin chucked. “Yes, she’s the one. I told her that I would let you in because you were interesting to me. She didn’t take kindly to that reasoning.” 

“Interesting?” 

“Yes. And I like to think that you proved me right during the initiation.” 

A happy grin blossomed on Matt’s face, and he rubbed the back of his neck. “Oh yeah, Natz did show off a bit.” 

Ozpin remembered just what he had seen of Natalie’s utter destruction of the Nevermore, both with his own eye and from the surveillance cameras set up in the woods. 

“Yes. A bit,” he replied, voice dry. “That actually brings us to why I asked you to come here. Natalie, could I ask you a question?” 

The girl in question stepped forward, clasping her hands together. “Of course, Headmaster.” 

“Wonderful. Then, that ability you used to defeat the Nevermore, may I ask what it was?” Ozpin kept a careful gaze on the girl he was addressing, as well as the rest of her team, watching for any reaction to his question. 

A reaction he wasn’t prepared for was Natalie flashing a grin and giving a peace sign with her hand while exclaiming, “It’s magic, just like I said!” 

Always a skeptic, Ozpin asked for more. “Do you mean a Semblance?” 

“Mmm, nah. Don’t have one of those.” 

Interesting. “And it’s not Aura either?” 

This time Lance stepped forward. “Nope. We’re not from around here and don’t have either of those. When Natalie says that it’s magic, it’s magic.” 

_Most remarkable_ , Ozpin thought, and then after realizing his students were waiting for him, repeated out loud. “Would you mind telling me how you came to possess this magic?” 

Natalie thought for a moment, exchanging a quiet conversation with her team before shrugging and returning her attention to Ozpin. “I’ve always had the capability, most everyone from where we’re from can do magic, most just choose not to, or never had a teacher.” She paused. “...Basically I found a teacher in my university who was willing to teach me, and I learned. Since then I’ve been practicing with my team.” 

“Remarkable. I wasn’t aware of any such land in Remnant.” Ozpin mused aloud. 

“Oh, that’s cause we’re not from Remnant,” Matt blurted out, flinching slightly as he was smacked on the head by Natalie. 

Ozpin gave himself a moment to file away that information before nodding and speaking once again. 

“I see… If you four don’t mind, could I ask one final question to affirm my decision to allow you into my school?” 

“Go ahead.” 

“Thank you. The question I ask is this: do any of you hold any harmful intentions to my students or the people of Remnant?” 

Immediately he was met with an unanimous response of ‘no’, before Natalie spoke over her team. “While Matt may steal things, Lance wants to put guns into orbit, and Anna has a bad habit of being too nice, none of my friends would ever hurt someone who didn’t deserve it, and as best as we can tell, no one here does.” 

Ozpin was grateful for the answer and said as much. “Then I shall trust your judgement. Thank you for speaking with me. Now, it’s getting late, and I don’t believe you have unpacked yet. Might I recommend heading to your rooms now?” 

Lance let out a yawn, not bothering to cover it, and nodded to Ozpin. “Ahhh, that sounds great, I can finally unpack my grenades.” 

And with that slightly concerning line, Ozpin’s most mysterious students left his office, leaving the green-haired headmaster to slump back against his chair. Retrieving his cup, he took a small sip, grimacing at the cooled drink, before replacing it on his desk. 

“All things considered, that could have gone much worse… I should probably tell Glynda about them not having Aura for her combat class… Though it would be more entertaining if I didn’t.” 

With a chuckle, Ozpin stood, and took the back door from the office, heading to his private chambers to sleep. Today had been a long and stressful day, and some rest would be important before the first day of school tomorrow. 

**-]l[-**

The morning dawned bright, a clear sky dominating the window of team MALN, as the four heroes awoke from their nighttime rest. A yawn came from the youngest member of the group, as Anna, the first to fully awake, rolled out of her bed and collapsed onto the floor, sheets tangled around her, and eyes spinning from the bump to her head. 

The noise brought her partner, Lance, out of his own slumber. Reaching under his pillow, the black-haired boy retrieved a grenade which he threw at Anna (pin still in, importantly), jerking her out of her stunned state and getting her to rise to her feet and head off to the rooms’ connected bathroom to shower. 

While the green-haired archer got dressed, Lance took a moment to check on the other two members of team MALN, and was unsurprised to see Matt still sleeping, though Natalie still being in bed was an odd sign, as she was usually the most on time of the whole group. 

Stepping across the room, Lance gently shook Natz’ shoulder to bring her to wakefulness. When, after a few moments, she didn’t wake, Lance grumbled in dissatisfaction and moved on to Matt with a solid whack to the head. 

“Oi, Matt. Nat isn’t waking up, any idea why?” 

The blonde being questioned let out a great yawn, before rising to a sitting position on his bed. “Oh yeah… we, uh, talked about this last night. You know how Natz was in university before she joined the party, right?” 

“Mmm, that was before I kidnapped her… yeah I vaguely knew that, she doesn’t talk about it too much though. What does it have to do with her sleeping in?” 

Matt rubbed the back of his neck, an increasingly common display from him. “Well you see, when she was in university, she barely slept, her classes kept her busy, so when she realized that we were headed to university again, she wanted to get as much sleep as possible before having to go to class.” 

“Makes sense.” 

Both boys turned to see Anna exit the bathroom, student attire donned, and quiver and bow strapped to her back. Noticing the stares she was getting, she shrugged. “What? No reason to go defenseless.” 

“No… it isn’t that,” Matt denied. “It’s just odd to see you in something so uniform.” 

“Mmm. Well you two have to wear it too, better get to it while I wake up Natz.” 

“Wait, you mean I have to wear a uniform!?” Lance shouted in dismay. “I was always the one to set the uniform, not to be forced into it... “ 

“Deal.” 

With a dejected sigh from Lance, the boys headed to the bathroom to change into their own uniforms, leaving Anna with the unenviable task of waking Natalie. As she did, she heard from down the hall the sound of a whistle, followed closely by the scream of a girl around her age. 

“Sounds like the other teams are having a real fun time waking up… At least there’s WiFi here so Natz can’t complain about that.” 

An affirming meow came from the final member of team MALN, NoLegs, the mascot and battle-cat of the group. The team had retrieved him from Matt’s locker on their way back to their rooms the night previous, and he had already settled in. 

“I’m glad you understand my pain, NoLegs.” 

**-]l[-**

First class of the day, Grimm Studies. As a self-proclaimed Grimm killing prodigy, Ruby was very excited for this class and the advice it would surely give her to improve her Grimm killing methods. She just couldn’t wait to see what Beacon Academy, _the_ Beacon Academy had set up for their teaching methods, oh, whoever was teaching this must be the bestest and smartest Hunter to ever raise a gun, if they were given the position of teaching Grimm Studies at the most prestigious academy in Remnant! 

“Monsters! Deeeeeeeemons. Prowlers of the night-” 

Aaaaaand nevermind. Paying-attention-Ruby was gone, replaced with falling-asleep-Ruby. Goodbye cruel world, for it could only be the cruelest of worlds to provide Beacon with such a teacher as Professor Port. 

Eh, this class couldn’t be _too_ important. 

“Ha-haaaaa!” Ruby was jerked from her nap by the professor, awfully rudely, shouting the class into awakeness. Didn’t he know that they’re trying to sleep? 

“And you shall too-” shall too what? What would she too? “-upon graduating from this prestigious academy.” 

Now, as I was saying: Vale, as well as the other three kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world! Our planet is absolutely teeming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces! And that's where we come in. Huntsmen! Huntresses..." 

Oh, did that man just flirt with her sister? He was gonna get it! Yang deserved someone good, not some boring teacher… 

Professor Boring continued, "Individuals who have sworn to protect those who cannot protect themselves! From what, you ask? Why, the very world!” 

While Ruby was thinking of her growing dislike for the man, a couple students behind her cheered at the speech, including one voice she recognized as the blonde who fought alongside Yang against the Death Stalkers. _Seriously? They actually buy this?_

"That is what you are training to become. But first: A story. A tale of a young, handsome man... Me! When I was a boy..." 

Oh god why did he have to tell a story... Ruby immediately lost attention, only catching snippets of the story as she began to sketch on her notepad. First, a body—a large circle took over the center of the paper, quickly followed by the designs of the professor’s suit. Stick figure arms, and single lines for legs that went into simple boots followed, before it was completed with a circle head and detailed hairline. Ruby had just finished drawing in stench lines emanating from the professor and was about to write down a title for her drawing when a hand reached from the desk behind her, stopping her from finishing the drawing. 

Turning, Ruby saw the same girl who had caught her yesterday, one of the members of team MALN, elephant once-again attached to her green hair. “Hey, uh, Ruby was it?” the girl asked. “Uh, I wouldn’t recommend badmouthing our professors so early on… like I get the urge, believe me I’ve wanted to say such things about people before, but you might get an impression that’s not actually what they’re like… Look. What I’m trying to say is this: don’t judge people too early…” The speaker chuckled slightly, pulling back. “I hope that got through, my friends usually think I’m an airhead for reasons I’m sure have nothing to do with my plant obsession…” 

Ruby thought about it for a moment. “No, I get it. If I judge a book by its cover, I might miss out on some amazing story. That’s smart, I guess. Thanks for the advice!” 

“Of course. By the way, my name’s Anna.” The girl tossed a glance to the professor before returning to Ruby. “Oh, and you might want to start paying attention again soon, the story is almost over.” 

"So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?" 

**-]l[-**

“Hmm… Now that didn’t seem to go very well.” 

Ruby spun around, startled. Her teammate Weiss had just walked away from their conversation after saying that she shouldn’t be leader, and now Headmaster Ozpin had snuck up on her? Well, if Ozpin was here, then there was a question she wanted to ask him. 

“Is she right?” Ruby choked out. “Did you make a mistake?” 

Ozpin chuckled slightly. “That remains to be seen.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“I mean, it’s only been one day. Ruby… I've made more mistakes than any man, woman, and child on this planet. But at this moment, I would not consider your appointment to leader to be one of them. Do you?" 

Ozpin paused, letting Ruby take in his words. “Being a team leader isn't just a title you carry into battle, but a badge you wear constantly. If you're not always performing at your absolute best, then what reason do you give others to follow you?” 

“But how can you know that I’m the right leader for this team? Yang is stronger, Weiss is smarter, and Blake is calmer. Wouldn’t any one of them have been a better leader?” 

Ozpin took a sip from his cup, considering her words. “In all my time on Remnant I like to think that I’ve gained some ability to read people, and see the potential in them. None of the leaders in your year were chosen for the same reason. For you, your skill and openness to learning helped solidify your position, since I knew that if you had a shortcoming, I could trust you to overcome it with your incredible determination.” 

Ruby nodded, eagerly taking in his words. “And Jaune, Cardin, Matt? What about them?” 

Ozpin chuckled at her enthusiasm. “Your friend Jaune was chosen for his latent potential, incredible tactical mind, and ability to make friends. Within this school, Jaune has the most ability to become a leader of something more than a Huntsman team. Mr. Winchester…” Ozpin trailed off, giving Ruby a moment to digest the new information about her first friend. 

After another dozen seconds of waiting, Ozpin resumed his speech. “Mr. Winchester is a case where I’m certain he will grow up to be a powerful and trustworthy ally, who, while you may not agree with him or call him friend, you will always be able to trust him to stand beside you when needed… Even if he may not seem that way right now, I have a strong feeling that he shall grow up when needed.” 

“I see…” 

“And lastly, Matt. His reasons for coming to Beacon are his own, but his team has been together for much longer than any other Beacon team, and all share very different personalities, proving Matt’s capabilities as a leader and friend. I suspect that he and his team shall bring many surprises during their time at Beacon. I hope I’ve helped assuage your fears about being made leader, and perhaps given you something to think about.” 

“Thank you, Headmaster. You’ve definitely helped.” Ruby gave him a smile, before the pair split up and headed their separate ways. Ruby had barely made it around the corner before she bumped into the girl who had advised her during class, Anna. 

“He’s right, you know? It has only been one day,” Anna spoke, patting Ruby on the back. 

“And I get that, but it just seems like I was chosen to be leader for other reasons than he gave… I’m the youngest in Beacon _ever_ , but it just feels like preferential treatment since everyone is so much better than me.” 

“Nah girl, you gotta have confidence in yourself. I’m the youngest member of my team, and while I’m not the leader, I am plenty strong. But I wasn’t at the beginning of our journey. When I joined them I was honestly a bit scared of each of them because they were just so much stronger than me, but they still trusted me to watch their backs, and because of that I was able to grow super strong, just like them.” 

Anna blushed, “I’m rambling again, aren’t I. Well, just try your best to be a leader, perfection isn’t required, or expected, so to just try your best and always work to improve when you need it is all that someone can ask of you.” 

Suddenly, Anna was pulled into a hug, letting out a squeal at the sudden contact. Ruby, arms wrapped around the very slightly older girl, spoke. “Thanks for the pick-me-up, and the help in class. Weiss would’ve been even more angry if I had shown her the picture, I bet.” 

“Probably. And I’ll help you anytime, gotta pass it along, y’know!” 

“Then uh, how do you study?” 

“‘How do I study?’ Lots of coffee, late at night.” 

“That can’t be healthy… my sister says that I shouldn’t drink coffee.” 

“Exactly! That’s why you shouldn’t study!” 

**-]l[-**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well. Blake, Weiss, and Yang got even less screen time this chapter (And did I even mention JNPR?), but it was also a mostly Ruby & Anna focused chapter. I have plans for the two of them… or maybe I don’t, and I’m just winging everything. I did my best to skim over the more boring (imo) parts of the chapter, so you can just assume that nothing really changed in those sections, and I expanded a bit upon Ozpin’s speech to Ruby about team leadership.
> 
> Anyways, this entire chapter consisted of a ton of dialogue. Chapter one was Initiation, all 4ish episodes of it, this chapter was Badge and the Burden (ft. stolen dialogue), and the next chapter will probably be Jaundice+Forever Fall, ft. Jaune, maybe-NPR, and probably Matt.
> 
> I hope you guys enjoyed this long, dialogue-filled, filler chapter, and next chapter we should probably get a bit more action. While writing this chapter it felt a bit weaker, and like I was just retreading scenes w/ minor changes in dialogue, but I suppose I’ll see how you guys feel about it. Changes should start getting major around chapter 4 (Docks!) when Lance is gonna show up w/ big guns. Anyways, those are the temp plans, and I hope that everyone is enjoying this story so far.
> 
> I said that I planned on getting this chapter out before Xenoblade DE released in my other story (only on FFN cause formatting is too damn hard), but I kinda failed that, only reaching a ready-to-edit chapter fifty minutes after the game released. Once again, no promises on when the next chapter will be up, though I’ll be attempting to get it out before my birthday, June 28th, so within a month.
> 
> And, if you did enjoy, please subscribe(?), and if you have something to say or just really want to brighten up my day, then please leave a commentas well!


	3. Chapter III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Formatting is hard.

**A Battle Fantasy in Remnant  
**

**Chapter Three**

**“An _ice-cream cone_. How embarrassing.”**

**-]l[-**

“I’m heading into Vale.” 

That is what greeted team MALN when they awoke to Lance, fully-dressed and standing at the dorm’s door one morning. Nary a second later and Matt was standing in front of his teammate, hands on shoulders, and eyes staring into Lance’s eyes, tears flying everywhere and an anguished expression plastered to his face. 

“But you can’t leave! We’re supposed to have four teammates! What can we do without a fundamental party member like you? Suffer?” 

Lance almost seemed like he was reconsidering, when he went silent for a moment, only to crush Matt’s hopes. “Yeah. Suffer. Just have NoLegs take my place as your fourth for a day. I’ll be back soon anyways.” 

“Alright,” Matt nodded. “What are you gonna be doing in Vale?” 

“...That was a sudden turnaround,” Lance muttered, perturbed. “Uh, I’ll be trying to get my ion cannon back into orbit. Just because it came with us doesn’t mean I can use it anytime, unlike your guys’ Limits. Oh, and I had this conversation with one of the other students—Ren—who mentioned this Dust thing to me. Apparently it's highly explosive...” Lance trailed off into a dark chuckle, one which the rest of the team ignored, used to his antics. 

“Alright. NoLegs! You’re promoted to part of team MALN… MANN?” Matt shrugged, giving up after a single attempt at renaming the team. “Lance, don’t get into anything fun without us, okay?” 

NoLegs gave an excited meow at this, and for Lance, an eyeroll was his answer, before the door opened and Lance stepped outside, coat swishing behind him. 

“I’m sure this is going to go over great with Headmaster Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch,” sighed Natalie, grabbing her book bag and offering NoLegs a ride. “Let’s head off to class, guys. First up is Combat Studies” 

**-]l[-**

“Matt,” Professor Goodwitch spoke, a dangerous tone staining her voice, and her words easily reaching to where Blake sat alongside the rest of team RWBY. “Do you have an explanation for the rumors I’m hearing of your team losing one of its members alread—is that a cat?!” 

Blake’s ears—the Faunus pair—twitched at that, her concealing bow moving along with them. A cat? Team MA-N brought a cat to combat class? Sure enough, on the ground next to Matt and his team was a small blue-furred… ‘cat.’ Sure, it had no limbs and appeared to be wearing clothes and a hat, but the distinctive ears and tail did make it clear that this creature was in fact a cat. 

Matt was quick to mount a defense for his unusual and feline choice for a teammate replacement—not that Blake wouldn’t take a cat over some of her teammates at times—and he quickly responded to Goodwitch. 

“Yes, Professor! NoLegs is a proud member of our team and can stand on equal ground with anyone in this class!” 

Goodwitch was very clearly suspicious of this statement, and only confirmed it with her next line. “Then I’m sure you won’t mind ‘NoLegs’ fighting first while you explain where your _actual_ fourth teammate went?” 

Matt thought about it for a moment, before shrugging. “I’m not sure we’ll have time for that, but if it’s fine with NoLegs then it's fine with me. He can decide his own battles.” At his side, the ‘cat’ let out a _mrrow_ , before hopping his way up to the fighting stage. 

So that ‘cat’ could either think, or was very well trained. How interesting. At Blake’s side, Yang—her blonde teammate with a penchant for punching—poked her in the side and pointed to the cat. “Look!” 

“I was already looking,” Blake muttered back, slightly irritated at the interruption. 

“Good, then you can see how that cat is holding a ice-cream cone as a weapon… without any limbs!” 

“Wait-what?!” Blake leaned forward, resting her arms on the chair in front of her and staring at the cat. He was indeed carrying something. On one side of his limbless body was an ice-cream cone (three scoops, she noticed), and on the other was an ice-cream sandwich. Despite the warm temperature in the room, neither was melting. 

“Where the hell did those come from?” Yang’s question was shared by the rest of the class, if the murmurs were any indication. 

Goodwitch began speaking again after a few moments to let the class quiet down. “You can begin your story after the bout begins. NoLegs, your opponent shall be—” 

“Hey! Shouldn’t NoLegs get to choose his opponent?” Matt interrupted, drawing a scowl from Weiss at the interruption, just barely visible to Blake on the other side of Yang. Goodwitch frowned briefly before eventually nodding. “Very well… NoLegs, who would you like to face?” 

The cat sat—stood?—on the stage for a moment before gesturing with his ice-cream cone towards none other than Blake. With a snort from her ever-helpful partner, the black-haired Faunus stood from her seat, collecting her weapon as she did so, and stepped gracefully down to the stage where she stood across from the blue-furred warrior. 

A holoscreen lit up, showing Blake and NoLeg’s faces with a green bar below Blake’s—showing her Aura, Blake assumed. She did find it interesting that Matt trusted his cat enough to fight without an Aura though, and was equally surprised that Goodwitch was letting it happen. She had seemed like a very by-the-books kind of teacher from what Blake had seen so far. 

“This bout will go to first hit, to ensure no injuries. That said, normally, matches will go until one combatant’s Aura is in the red. Are both combatants ready to fight?” 

Blake nodded, and across from her, NoLegs gave a happy meow. 

“Very well. Then on my mark, the match begins. Three, two, one, go!” 

**-]l[-**

The cat made the first move. The _actual_ cat. NoLegs rushed toward Blake, hopping at a respectable speed, ice-cream cone bobbing. Across the stage from him, Blake held Gambol Shroud in front of her, crouched slightly, and readied herself to move at any moment. It wouldn’t do to underestimate a cat, she mentally chuckled at the thought. 

A moment later and NoLegs disappeared, leaving only a dust cloud behind. Then she heard it, the slightest of ruffles, the sound of fur in the wind. Spinning on her feet, Blake brought Gambol Shroud to protect from an overhead strike. Striking against her weapon was the ice-cream cone, the three flavoured scoops slicing across her defense three times before NoLegs landed on the ground once more. 

_‘Fast!’_

When NoLegs made no motion to attack again, Blake took it as her chance to test the waters, an opportunity she was very grateful for. First, she took advantage of the brief break to draw her blade from its sheath, splitting Gambol Shroud into a katana and a sheath, both held loosely and prepared to strike. Then Blake moved, not nearly as fast as her opponent, but smoother, staying low to the ground as she crossed the stage. 

Then she was within range, merely a few feet away and she struck. Her katana lashed out, but was stalemated by his ice-cream cone. That was fine, she prepared for that. Her back foot slid forward slightly, and then her left arm jerked forward, hand hooked through her sheath, and whipping it toward NoLegs’ head, an attack he would be hard-pressed to avoid. 

She missed. NoLegs had slipped forward, sidestepping her sheath, and angled his ice-cream cone just right so that her katana slid off. It nicked the wooden floor slightly, leaving her defenseless, a fact that was quickly proven as she was knocked backward by a thrust of NoLeg’s weapon that hit her stomach. 

Or it would’ve, had it not been for her Semblance. A shadow clone took her place, disintegrated by the attack. With its creation, Blake was sent flying up above the stage, allowing her a brief moment to think. 

NoLegs had already proven that he could take her swordplay, and Blake wasn’t confident enough to try to take on a faster opponent—at least not while she still had options that didn’t rely on luck. Flipping as she reached the top of her leap, Blake clipped her sheath to her back and flipped a switch on the katana. The blade folded down, and then a ribbon extended from the handle of the weapon, forming a kusarigama. Blake wrapped the ribbon around her main-hand, once, twice, and then she was ready. 

She was already halfway back down to the stage, and could see NoLegs waiting for her when she struck. Her fingers relaxed, and Gambol Shroud fell, dropping faster than her, until it was just about to hit the ground, that was her queue. A flick of the wrist had the weapon flying back to her, pulled by its ribbon, slicing directly toward NoLegs. 

This wasn’t an attack meant to injure, simply distract and allow time for Blake to land safely, so it was no bother when the blue-furred cat simply deflected her weapon back to the ground. It was there that her plan truly began. Blake brought her off-hand up to grasp another portion of the ribbon, and then skillfully controlled Gambol Shroud to bring it back to her, pushing and pulling at times to keep NoLegs from knocking it out of the air. 

Weapon safely retrieved, and ribbon wrapped around her arms, Blake was forced to retreat slightly under a barrage of strikes from NoLegs, the cat darting in and out of her range, keeping her under pressure. An especially brutal strike, one that Blake was forced to block with Gambol Shroud’s sheath, sent Blake flying back several feet. She skidded on the stage, one hand frantically grasping around in her pockets for something. 

A moment later she found it, and after ejecting Gambol Shroud’s clip to clatter against the stage, slid a new clip, this one glowing teal, into the weapon. Job done, she glanced up, and her eyes widened as her opponent was mere inches away, his weapon slamming into her face, causing a shattering sound to echo through the room. 

For what NoLegs had struck was not Blake, nor an intangible copy made by her Semblance. It was a solid ice sculpture of the black-haired girl, that had been created by her Semblance along with Ice Dust. And when NoLegs struck it, it shattered, hundreds of pieces spiralling through the air around NoLegs, fencing him in for the few brief moments until they landed. 

Those few brief moments would have to be enough. Blake threw Gambol Shroud behind NoLegs, before whipping it around by the ribbon, gathering enough of the ribbon in the stage to completely entrap NoLegs should it hit. And then she pulled, closing the trap upon NoLegs, ice blocking his escape, ribbons closing to trap him, and Gambol Shroud heading straight for his chest. He may be fast, but Blake was confident that no student at Beacon would be able to escape this without getting hit by any of the various projectiles. 

And it was as she thought this, that NoLegs began moving even faster. For a moment, Blake thought she saw the wind itself pushing NoLegs along. And then NoLegs was gone, leaving only afterimages that slipped through Blake’s prepared trap like it hadn’t even been there. 

Blake felt the freezing cold of the ice-cream cone impact her, and collapsed to her knees, listening numbly as Goodwitch called out the results of the bout. She had just lost to a cat. A _cat_. If her parents, no, if anyone on Menagerie ever found out about this she would never live it down. 

“Ah, don’t cry, Blakey! You did your best.” Blake glanced up to see her partner Yang approaching her, followed closely by the rest of team RWBY. 

“Indeed... there was no way you could’ve known that the cat was so strong, especially without an Aura. Such a loss is nothing to be ashamed of,” chimed in Weiss. 

“He was so faaaaaaast! Faster than me, maybe,” Ruby muttered, giving Blake a pat on the back which she was too slow to dodge. With a sigh, Blake picked herself off the floor and followed the team back to the stands. 

“I’m not gonna burst out crying at a single loss. My only worry is if anyone back home gets word of this…” Blake trailed off, mumbling the last part. 

“Your family? Where are you from?” Yang was quick to latch on to her slip. 

“Nevermind. I’d rather not talk about it.” That garnered her a sceptical look, though at least Yang didn’t seem intent on pushing it. 

They had just sat back down at their chairs when one of the members of team MALN, Natalie if she remembered right, approached them with an apologetic look on her face. 

“Hey…” she began. “I’m sorry for how NoLegs was acting during that fight. He’s normally very polite, but I guess something about you must’ve set him off.” 

“It’s fine,” Blake assured Natalie, bowing slightly. “Besides, I’ve done a lot of things that make people not like me, so it doesn’t surprise me.” 

“People not liking Blake? But she’s so nice!” Ruby interjected, drawing a small smile from the black-haired girl in question. 

“Still, he’s normally better behaved, so just let us know if there’s anything we can do to make up for his actions.” 

Yang was quick to take her up on the offer, requesting the story of where MALN’s fourth member had gone to. “After all, Professor Goodwitch was so distracted by the fight she forgot to ask.” 

“Ah, Lance. He went into Vale to put a satellite into orbit.” 

**-]l[-**

His first four stops had been at various Dust stores, all of which had been closed for some reason or another, and it was only at the fifth—a store called From Dust Till Dawn—when he actually got a reason behind all the closed stores. The owner of the store had been in the middle of repairing a window when Lance had arrived, and was more than willing to explain the situation while Lance helped him install the new window. 

Apparently, this guy named Roman Torchwick had been going around stealing Dust from nearly every store in Vale. Just a few days ago he had attempted to rob this very store, and was only stopped by the intervention of a girl in red wielding a scythe who engaged the criminal in a fight. Lance was intrigued to find out that one of his fellow first years was already adept in fighting criminals, and made a note to not mention his past to her. 

After another few minutes of work, Lance and the shopkeep finished up their work, and Lance took advantage of the pause to ask a question. 

“Say… Torchwick didn’t succeed in his robbery, did he?” 

The owner shook his head. 

“Mmm, then I don’t suppose I’d be able to buy any of this dust?” 

“It would cost ya’, bit more than usual, since I need the Lien for repairs, but if you got Lien I can get you Dust.” 

After Lance didn’t respond, the shopkeep paused from his sweeping to glance in the boy’s direction, only to see him look back with a confused look. 

“Old man, what’s Lien?” 

“...The currency of Remnant. Are you sure you should be in Beacon?” 

“Oi!” Lance shouted at the man, insulted. “Just you wait, I’ll be back later with some of this ‘Lien.’” 

And with that he turned and dashed out of the door, Scroll in hand, and already looking up ways to get Lien. 

**-]l[-**

It had taken way too long—in Lance’s opinion—to find the right man for the job. 

After the stop at the Dust shop, he had found himself searching for two things, Lien to buy Dust, and some place to launch a rocket, ideally on the outskirts of town. While he could’ve attempted a launch at Beacon, some instinct told him that the Headmaster wouldn’t be too happy with Lance launching a nuke so close to his students. So the town it was. 

Eventually, while walking through some back alleys searching for Lien, a thug tried to mug Lance. A moment later, Lance was mugging the thug, having knocked the thug’s weapon the the ground, and now holding his own threateningly. 

At that point, it didn’t take much convincing for the would-be robber to send him off to some club in search of a guy named Junior. The thug said that this Junior would be able to send him where he needed to go. 

So Lance found Junior. 

And Junior found out just why you shouldn’t threaten someone with the firepower to blow up the city. 

Suffice it to say, Junior told Lance just who he needed to find, one Roman Torchwick, and had even been kind (read: scared) enough to offer Lance some Lien, free of charge. Then he tried to ambush Lance the moment the boy let him go. Safe to say Junior’s Bar would be undergoing repairs a bit longer than previously estimated. 

And that was the story of how Lance found himself bartering with an orange-haired thief wearing a bowler and his assistant, a short woman with pink and black hair. 

“Alright. So let me get this straight, Kid. You want an abandoned area so you can ‘launch a satellite into space,’ and our eternal servitude under your rule to protect the planet?” 

Lance nodded. “Yep.” 

“And why exactly should I help you? Someone who my sources assure me to be a student at Beacon Academy?” To his side, the girl gave a grin at Lance, parasol spinning in a vaguely threatening manner. 

Lance thought for a moment before replying. “Ehmm… if you help me now than I won’t be forced to destroy you?” 

Roman chuckled. “And I’m supposed to believe that a single school student could take down both me and Neo?” 

“Ah… If you know that I’m a student at Beacon, I’m sure you heard what my teammate did during initiation?” Roman nodded, and Lance continued. “I can do much worse than that, with ease.” 

Roman still seemed uncertain, until Neo tapped him on the shoulder and showed him a message on the scroll. “You know what, Kid? This seems like a great deal, though we’ll have to skip on the eternal servitude part.” Lance shrugged, uncaring. “I can get you the launch site, but it’ll take a few weeks to get the site cleared. I’ll contact you when it’s ready, though how the hell you’re planning on breaching the Dust Orbit Barrier I don’t even want to know… Atlas has been trying since before they existed and the highest they got was four miles up… on a Schnee funded mission no less.” 

Lance stared at the speaker blankly. He knew the words used, but not what they meant. Not that it mattered, as long as the man could fulfill his request. 

“Ah nevermind. I’ll let you know when it’s ready. If it crashes, it ain’t my fault.” 

“I’m glad we could reach an agreement,” Lance said, shaking his business partner’s hand before turning and leaving. He still had Dust to buy, after all. 

**-]l[-**

“I’m just saying, if NoLegs can defeat Blake with only an ice-cream cone, there’s no reason I can’t do something similar with Crocea Mors. It’s served my family faithfully for generations, and is likely one of the oldest Huntsman weapons still in use… it doesn’t need upgrades!” 

“Uh, Jaune…” Ruby chuckled nervously, leading her friend through Beacon’s hallways. “NoLegs was able to defeat Blake with an ice-cream cone because he was an absolute monster, and, no offense, you’re not an absolute monster.” 

“Rub it in, why don’t you,” Jaune muttered morosely. “Alright, Ruby. You can try to convince me, but no pouting when I don’t agree.” 

“Deal!” 

Agreement reached, the pair headed off to the forges of Beacon where Ruby would be attempting to convince Jaune of the benefits of upgrading Crocea Mors, citing features such as Dust capabilities, stronger hits, and an improved deployment system. 

She continued chattering at him for the next few minutes as they crossed Beacon’s campus, headed to a smaller side-building. It was located some ways away from the dorms and classrooms—nearer to the farms than anything else—to prevent any Dust or mechanical issues from causing any harm to those not responsible. Ruby had visited the forges once already to fix a few scratches to Crocea Mors after initiation, and expected it to be just as empty this afternoon as it was the previous day. 

That was not the case. 

The two team leaders had scarcely made it five steps inside when they heard the sound of an explosion followed by coughing coming from one of the forge rooms. The pair exchanged glances, before dashing over to the room to check on the inhabitant. Inside, they found one of their fellow students, gun wielder, and all around edgy teenager, Lance. 

“Are you all right!?” Ruby dashed over to the collapsed student, barely noticing the open cases of dust scattered apart the room in her haste to check on the black-haired boy—dust explosions were serious business, as she learned just a few days ago. 

Lance waved off her concern, pulling himself upright. “Nah, I’ve had worse,” he let out a cough. “What are you two doing here?” 

Seeing that Ruby had noticed the dust in the room and was a bit too distracted to answer, Jaune took over. “Ruby wanted to convince me to upgrade my sword with Dust.” 

“You mean your sword doesn’t already shoot lasers or something? I’m surprised, honestly. I guess Matt has been rubbing off on me.” 

“What!? How is that surprisi—” 

“What is all this Dust for?” Ruby cut Jaune off, gesturing around the room at the several cases of dust while gazing at Lance with a curious look on her face. 

“Ah, I heard from your teammate—” he gestured at Jaune. “—that Dust was highly explosive, as well as elemental, and was hoping I could find a way to increase my elemental arsenal to get a bit closer to my teammates’.” 

“And you need this much Dust?” Jaune was suspicious. The most flexibility he had ever seen from a Hunter was his father, who regularly fought with two or three different kinds of dust. But the amount Lance had laid out—some eleven colors—was just overkill for any Hunter, even Jaune knew that. 

“Yeah, Anna has over ten elements she can use with ease. Even Matt has like eight options, way more than me, and most of his are just his sword magically creating them.” Lance paused, shooting the cases of Dust an irritated look. “Thing is, I just can’t figure out how to get this Dust working without it blowing up—not that that’s a problem, mind, it’s just more useful if I have more options.” 

“You don’t know how to activate Dust? Just infuse it with a bit of Aura, easy. Even Jaune could do it.” 

“Hey!” 

  
“A bit of what now?” 

“My god, he’s just like you, Jaune…” Ruby and Jaune exchanged a glance at Lance’s question. It had taken a bit, but eventually Pyrrha had explained the significance of Jaune barely knowing what Aura was, and to find a second person with even more lacking knowledge... 

“You know what? Let’s get started, class!” Ruby suddenly hopped on top of one of the many metal tables, arm held to the sky. “Jaune, you stay here to see how Dust works and be convinced of the wonder and majesty of it, and how useful it would be to upgrade Crocea Mors, and Lance… let’s learn to use Dust!” 

And so, for the next four hours, the trio found themselves working in the forges, learning from Ruby on how exactly Dust worked, the various types, and how to activate it by hand, as well as the more _explosive_ aspects of Dust. 

Truth be told, all three were bigger fans of the explosions. 

**-]l[-**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I might not have rewatched Jaunedice before publishing the last chapter, and kinda didn’t know there was a two week time skip between Badge and Burden and Jaunedice… but now I know, so the next chapter will probably be Jaunedice. Maybe.
> 
> Anyways, a few things about this chapter. First up, NoLegs utterly murdering Blake. I hope that no one is surprised that an endgame, agility tank, can out-ninja the first year Beacon student. This is one of the first displays of how I’ll be scaling the EBF team. I’m putting them at top-tier for destructive ability, high-tier for physicals, and EX for hax. In addition, we also got Lance offscreening Junior and his entire club, not that that says much, given how Yang basically solo’d them.
> 
> Next up, the Dust Orbit Barrier. Thought of it while writing out this chapter, and the idea behind it is more or less that there’s a point where it’s either economically impossible, or physically impossible, to get liftoff from only Dust, due to the weakening effects the further it gets from Remnant. I’m thinking that there is a specific point where adding more Dust counters its own fuel, by the weight it adds, and the weakening. The mention of a Schnee funded mission is the idea that the Schnee have the purest and most efficient Dust, and thus would have the best chance of success. The number of four miles was mostly arbitrary, based off of the flying height of an airplane, minus 40ish%. If that seems unrealistic, feel free to mention it and I can change it.
> 
> A few more things about this chapter that eagle-eyed readers might have noticed. First: Jaune “barely knew what Aura was” in this fic. This is because I felt like it, no real reason beyond him being a complete idiot seems kinda off. Plus I get to make his dad be a Dust-caster in the background.
> 
> And the last thing, the number of elemental spells each character has access to, according to Lance. This is based off of my own save file, where, counting element-neutral and healing as separate elements, and character’s extra skills as belonging to them, and notably not counting weapon elements… Matt has 9, Natalie has 10, Lance has 5, NoLegs has 9, and Anna has 12.
> 
> Anyways, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, even though it was pretty-much just filler to give a bit more reason for the teams to be friends later on. If you have any predictions, let me know, I did start setting up a few things in this chapter that should theoretically come to fruition later in the story. If you enjoyed the chapter, please leave me a favorite, and/or follow, and if you really enjoyed the chapter, or have any questions for me, please leave a review. Til next time!


	4. Chapter ourFay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s super weird to stalk someone’s profile after they favorite you, and then see a fic you beta’d for on it.
> 
> Also, I totally didn’t put editing this chapter off for… 14 days.
> 
> Also also, longest chapter yet. They just keep growing. 
> 
> Also also also, this chapter includes an omake, to be found at the bottom, to make up for the lack of fighting. It is considered secondary-canon, to be contradicted at my convenience.

**A Battle Fantasy in Remnant**

**Chapter Four**

**“Just accept help already!”**

**-]l[-**

“Damnit, Jaune! When I say duck, duck!” Lance’s words echoed around the forge room as he lowered his still-smoking rifle, a concerned look on his face as he gazed at Jaune. 

“And I told you that yelling ‘Duck!’ at someone _after_ shooting the round doesn’t work! I’m not as fast as NoLegs is!” Jaune’s retort was surprisingly fast for someone collapsed against a wall, having been blown into it for what must’ve been the fifteenth time. 

Ruby nodded from the sidelines, taking in the slight crater in the wall behind Jaune. “He’s right, you need to give at least a second of warning before shooting your friends—otherwise how will they know to use the combo move?” 

“That’s gonna be terrifying when used at full power,” Jaune muttered, glancing at the wall behind him and taking the moderately sized dent that his body had left. Dusting himself off, he went to stand by his friends. 

Lance, Ruby, and Jaune (whenever Ruby had a say in the matter, at least) were common attendees to this room, having spent the past week and a bit upgrading weapons (on Lance’s part), teaching people how to make explosives (Ruby), and being obstinate on not needing upgrades (Jaune… though if you asked him, he’d probably say he was being tortured with how often he went back to his dorm bruised and bloodied by some Dust explosion). 

The current project that the trio was working on was modifying Lance’s bullets to include various forms of Dust. So far it had been a pretty simple project, simply needing to create new bullet molds and test out the various amounts needed per Dust type. 

It was much simpler than their previous project—that of Ruby learning to use more Dust types with her weapon. While seeing the girl dart around with her scythe trailing lightning behind her was impressive, it would’ve been even more so were Jaune not always needing to run from her 

—being the only person in the room slow enough for her to hit consistently, and the best practice dummy with his rather absurd amounts of Aura for his age. Sure, he had consented to it, and the two others were perfectly willing to get hit by him whenever he created some new weapon or attack, but still, it grated, being the slowest, if not weakest in the room by such a margin. 

“Just try to give me a bit more warning, okay? I get enough of this from Cardin…” 

Ruby’s eyes immediately darted to stare at Jaune, concern clearly visible. “Jaune…? Do you need anything?” 

“Ah, nevermind. I need to get back to my dorm anyway, it’s getting late.” Jaune brushed off Ruby’s concerns, head down, hands fiddling with a pair of Ice Dust crystals. 

“If you’re sure… just let us know if you do need anything, we’re your friends.” 

“Of course…” He stood, shoved his hands into his jean pockets, and left the room, the door swinging closed behind him. 

“He’s lying, you know that?” Lance took a seat on one of the many tables scattered throughout the room, fiddling with a Dust bullet. “I know what it looks like, and I’m sure you do too.” 

Ruby glanced at him despondently. “Yeah, but what can I do? If he doesn’t want our help, then we can’t force it on him.” 

Lance shrugged. “True, but trust me on this, just having people willing to help you and who will talk is often enough.” 

The conversation paused for a moment as Ruby digested his words, before she shot to her feet with a grin. “I got it! I’ll call the plan: help-Jaune-out-if-he-needs-it, and I’ll recruit everyone—my team, his team…” 

“Yeah yeah, I get it. I’ll talk to Matt about it. Just keep in mind that we can’t force this upon him, at least not with how it is now. He needs to make his own choice in the matter.” 

“Of course. It’ll be for an emergency!” 

“Good. Now get some sleep, brat. Your team is probably missing you, considering how late it is.” 

Ruby let out a gasp as she glanced at her Scroll, seeing the time. “Then you also need to get back too, right?” 

“Pfft, you think Matt goes to sleep before four A.M.? Nah, he’s probably roped Anna into playing some crappy RPG, and Natz is studying.” 

“Studying for what? Homework isn’t due for a week.” 

“How to summon a tsunami more effectively.” 

“I think you might need sleep more than I do.” 

“Shut up, Rose. I don’t need your sass in my life.” 

**-]l[-**

“You should take Pyrrha up on her offer,” Ren whispered, glancing up at Jaune as the blonde entered their dorm room. “At least, if _I_ had a four-time tournament winner offering me help, I’d take it.” 

Jaune let out a sigh at Ren’s words, slowly closing the door. “I know… it just… doesn’t sit right with me to admit defeat so soon.” 

“No one will hold it against you, if you accept her help… no one that matters at least.” 

“...” 

“Just think about it, that’s all I ask. This team needs its leader.” 

“...I can do that much.” 

**-]l[-**

Jaune rose from his slump, shield at his side, Crocea Mors held protectively in front of himself, and prepared for one final assault on Cardin. He knew he couldn’t win this—not this low on Aura and energy, and probably not even if he had changed things up at the beginning of the spar. 

Even still, he had to try. A yell escaped his lips as he charged at Cardin, turning into a yelp as the still-undamaged boy took a step to the side, dodging Jaune’s attack and returning fire with an underhand swing of his mace. 

Jaune managed to get his shield up in time to catch the blow, but the strength behind the attack sent his shield flying away from him, just as he went flying onto his backside. Leaping to his feet once more, sword held in both hands, Jaune let out a roar as he charged for his final attack. 

Cardin, damn him, easily blocked the attack with his mace, before forcing Jaune into a strength contest, pushing down against his smaller frame. 

“This is the part where you lose,” Cardin spoke, pushing even more aggressively against Crocea Mors. 

“Over my dead—” Jaune cut himself off upon seeing Cardin’s face. His instincts screamed—honed from over a week of Lance trying to kill him—and Jaune threw himself to the side… or tried. 

Credit where credit is due, Jaune made it far enough that what Cardin had intended to be a crotch shot instead slammed into Jaune’s right leg. An attack that, while not holding the completely debilitating effects of the intended, would still have been enough against the tired and weak-in-Aura Jaune to throw him to the ground. 

But instead of bringing Jaune to an easily defeatable state, Cardin’s attack instead struck home on Jaune’s right pocket. Not the home to his Scroll—for that was one of his belt’s many compartments, nor the home to his spare bandaids—that was his left pocket. No, what the right pocket held was far more dangerous than either of those objects. 

Held within that pocket, were the same two shards of Ice Dust that Jaune had shoved in there two days previous. Forgotten about, yet still volatile. 

And, as Jaune had been learning over the past several days, Dust had two major effects when attacked. One elemental, and one explosive. Suffice it to say that there was now a moderately sized ice sculpture in the middle of the combat stage. 

“...The match is a draw,” Glynda announced, a sour tone present in her voice as she glowered at the two frozen boys. 

“Well, he did better than I expected, at least,” Lance muttered from where he sat in the stands, surrounded by teams MALN, RWBY, and NPR. “He did last for nearly fifteen minutes.” 

Beside him, in the no-man's land between the three teams, Ruby glanced back at him. “Yeah, I suppose. Still… I suppose I just want to be able to help out my first friend.” 

**-]l[-**

“And remember, the Vytal Festival is only a few months away,” Ruby heard Professor Goodwitch repeat to her as she exited the classroom. She really wanted all the students to know, Ruby guessed. 

Her schedule was free until lunch, and so Ruby was hoping to make it to the dining hall early, get the cookies before they were all gone! A few minutes could mean the difference between getting cookies, or being stuck with Yang feeding her broccoli! 

As she hurried through the hallways to lunch, thinking of the previous class’ events, she paused for a moment, leaning against the wall to listen to the conversation through a nearby classroom door. 

“That was my win, and everyone knows it!” Ruby heard Cardin say, 

“Yeah! The only reason Goodwitch called it a draw was because of Jauney’s luck with that Dust. Besides, aren’t Dust crystals banned from spars?” Ruby only vaguely recognized this voice as one of Cardin’s teammates, though no name came to mind. 

“You’d think that Jaune would know better than to win by now… I guess we’ll just have to remind him.” 

Just as Cardin finished speaking, the door that Ruby had been leaning nearby began to open slowly, and, with a flinch, the girl sped away with her Semblance. A few seconds later and Ruby was hallways away at the entrance to the cafeteria. Automatically, she walked inside and took her spot in line, but her mind was no longer focused on the cookies, but was instead focused on the problem of Cardin and Jaune. 

_‘It might be time to put plan-help-Jaune-out into action.’_

**-]l[-**

“I hereby bring the inaugural meeting of the ‘Help-Jaune-Out’ committee to order!” Ruby slammed her fist down onto the table, before flinching and glancing behind her shoulder in fear at the sounds of other students falling silent and staring at her. Coughing slightly, she turned back to the table abashed, before continuing quieter. “Any objections?” 

Immediately, a hand was raised. “Yes, Jaune?” Ruby called on him. 

“Uh, can I object on the grounds that I don’t need helping out?” Jaune spoke falteringly, as the entire population of the table turned to gaze at him. 

“Nope!” Ruby grinned in response. “Any other objections?” 

A pause, as Jaune formulated his thoughts, before he raised his hand once more. “How about on the grounds of this not being a good conversation for the lunch table?” 

Ruby opened her mouth to answer this as well, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her, and Ren took over. “Would you prefer if Nora told us about her dreams instead?” 

“Ooh! Do you mean the one about Ursai and Ursai rugs!?” 

At the sound of Nora beginning her tale, Jaune lowered his hand, returning to eating, a resigned expression on his face. “Objection lowered.” 

“Wonderful,” Pyrrha took over the conversation, sliding into place beside Ruby. “It wouldn’t do any good for our leader to be unwilling to accept advice and help. We might have to teach him a lesson…” 

“Break his legs—oh wait. Sorry, Fearless Leader, I thought we were talking about Cardin.” 

Jaune gulped, both at the unintended threat as well as the mention of his bully. 

“Nora has the right intentions, if the wrong way of showing it.” Natalie was the third to take a seat across from Jaune, and it was clear from the way the other team members were closing in around him that he wouldn’t be avoiding this conversation. Even NoLegs had found a place hanging from a chandelier above the table. 

Seeing no way out of the conversation, Jaune conceded defeat. “Alright. I’ll listen.” 

And then began the interrogation—err, conversation. Spanning everything Cardin had done to Jaune from shoving him in the hallways, to stealing his dust, even when he attempted to launch Jaune with his own rocket launcher, an attempt that was thankfully foiled by Matt having already stolen the thrusters to every single locker. 

It took nearly ten minutes to convince Jaune of the bullying that was occurring, but eventually the tag-team of Natalie, Pyrrha, and Ruby was successful to get him to talk about it. The teams were about to settle into planning when from across the dining hall they heard the sound of a student being bullied. 

“Oww, that hurts!” 

Immediately, the three teams turned in their seats to see Cardin and his team making fun of a Faunus upperclassman, Velvet, if Jaune remembered correctly. They were pulling on her ears, the Faunus pair, as well as making rude comments. 

“Despicable…” Pyrrha murmured, glowering at Cardin—an action shared by Blake, just a few seats away. “I can’t believe the teachers just let him do that!” 

“Not just the teachers, Pyrrha,” Matt yawned, standing from the table, and meandering over toward where CRDL sat. “The students aren’t doing anything about it either.” 

“Well, it’s not like we can. Goodwitch is so strict, getting into a fight at any time is liable to get us expelled,” Jaune muttered. “The only reason Cardin gets away with it is because of his unnatural ability to know exactly when Goodwitch isn’t looking.” 

“Well,” Matt shouted back, already halfway to CRDL. “Sometimes you gotta break some rules to keep your morals intact… not that _I’ll_ have to break any rules today. Cardin?” 

The boy in question glanced up as his name was called out, and grimaced at the sight of Matt. “What do you want, sword boy? Here to get expelled for starting a fight?” 

“Nah, just warning you to look up. NoLegs got a bit irritated at you.” 

Cardin’s eyes widened, and he rocketed his gaze up, only to see NoLegs falling from the ceiling, riot stick held in one hand, and shield on the other. Cardin didn’t even have time to curse before the cat was upon him, Cardin falling onto his backside, and NoLegs riding him to the ground like a surfer. 

By the time Cardin had regathered himself, there was a police baton held to his throat and a cat glaring into his eyes. A harsh meow sounded, and the glare intensified, the baton being jabbed into his throat. 

“He says to not antagonize those stronger than you,” Matt helpfully translated, a grin present on his face at the situation. 

“...Stronger than me? You mean the cat?” Cardin made an attempt at struggling while he spoke, but was quickly dissuaded by another jab from NoLegs. 

“No, we all know that NoLegs is stronger than you—not that that’s hard—he’s talking about her.” Matt gestured to where Velvet was standing a few meters away. 

Cardin spluttered at the implication. “You think that Bunny here is stronger than me?” 

“Huh? Where’s the thinking? I know she’s stronger than you—you just seem to be ignoring the facts. Anyways, I have other places to be, people to train, things to steal, so I’ll just leave you with NoLegs’ last words. ‘Don’t try anything.’” With that, Matt turned and walked away. 

Cardin meanwhile still had a cat on his chest, and was busy trying to get NoLegs off. “Hey, kitty-kitty,” he murmured, gesturing with a piece of fish away from himself. “I’m sure that Blondie was just speaking out of his ass, right? You wouldn’t hurt dear Cardin would you?” 

The moment those words left Cardin’s mouth, he regretted them. NoLegs turned his gaze’s intensity from an 8 to an 11. His normally cheerful and round eyes narrowed, glaring into Cardin’s, and within a moment, some kind of blackish-red aura was literally leaking from his eyes. 

Fear shot into Cardin’s veins, and he jerked to a stand, doing his very best to throw NoLegs off of him, yelling all the time. “I yield! I yield!” 

In the hallway outside of the dining hall, Matt shared a high-five with the suddenly-present NoLegs before the pair walked off, their team following behind them. 

**-]l[-**

That evening, when Jaune arrived for his ‘argue-with-Ruby-about-upgrading-his-weapon’ session, there were more people than just Ruby and Lance there. 

...Well ok, not that many more, just Matt and Pyrrha, but it was still more than Jaune was used to seeing. 

“I thought we finished the conversation about bullying at lunch?” Jaune said as he stepped into the room, closing the door behind him to contain any possible explosions. Sounds faded as the door clicked into place. 

“We finished… most of it,” Pyrrha answered with an apologetic smile. “Matt and I are just here to talk about your training, and your time with Ruby and Lance was the easiest time to catch you.” 

“...’My training?’” 

This time it was Matt who answered the question. “Yeah, Pyrrha here dragged me into it, since I didn’t have anything better to do. Basically we just want you to get stronger so that you’re uh…” he looked Jaune up and down. “Stronger… yeah, let’s go with that.” 

A growl entered Jaune’s voice. “Am I not strong enough for your liking?” Pyrrha made to answer, but Lance—whom Jaune had honestly forgotten was in the room—took it instead. “Frankly, yeah. You’re a team leader now, what strength you had before isn’t enough anymore.” 

“What does being a team leader have to do with it? If anything, shouldn’t that mean I don’t have to be _as_ strong? Besides…” his voice became bitter. “I’m practically a failure anyways, so what does it matter. Ozpin should’ve made you leader, Pyrrha.” 

“Nope!” Ruby popped up beside Jaune and placed both her hands on his shoulders. “You’re a leader now, Jaune. You’re not allowed to be a failure.” 

“But what if I’m a failure at being a leader? I faked my way into the school Beacon!” Jaune burst out, causing Pyrrha to gasp and make to step forward at his words, but a hand from Lance stopped her, his look saying ‘Trust me.’ 

“Nope!” Ruby was unfazed by Jaune’s revelation. 

“What’s that supposed to mean!?” 

“Jaune, maybe you were a failure when you were a kid... and you might've even been a failure the first day we met! But, you can't be one now. You know why?" Ruby spoke with passion, her eyes gazing into Jaune’s, unwilling to let him look away. 

She didn’t give him a chance to answer. “Because it's not just about you anymore. You've got a team now, Jaune. We both do! And if we fail, then we'll just be bringing them down with us. We have to put our teammates first, and ourselves second. Your team deserves a great leader, Jaune. And I think that can be you. So please, let Pyrrha and Matt help you.” She held her position, hands on Jaune’s shoulders for a moment longer until he let out a slight smile and laughed. Only then did she back away. 

“Well... when you put it that way, how can I refuse?” Jaune straightened his back, and stared resolutely at Pyrrha and Matt. “When do we start?” 

“Tonight, at training room seven. But first, Jaune, you need to tell Nora and Ren about how you got into Beacon. It may not matter to me, but they deserve to know.” 

“Alright. I’ll tell them back at the room,” Jaune accepted. 

“Oh, no need, they’re just waiting outside for us to finish talking,” Pyrrha strode over to the door, and opened it, letting the remainder of team JNPR enter before closing it again. 

And so Jaune told them. 

Naturally, they didn’t care whatsoever. 

**-]l[-**

Jaune toweled off his sweat, as he sheathed his sword and exited the training room, Matt behind him—the bastard didn’t even look winded. Jaune’s training had been going on for just over a week, with Pyrrha working on Jaune’s technique, and Matt on his stamina and search for his Semblance. Normally they would’ve trained for another half-hour before stopping, but today there was a field trip to look forward to—a trip to Forever Fall if Jaune remembered correctly. 

“You’re getting better! You’re stronger than some of the foes I’ve faced already, and I’m sure you’ll get even stronger!” Matt slapped him on the shoulder, a blow that Jaune winced at, bruises flaring from the hit. 

“Eeeeehhh,” Jaune groaned. “If you say so…” 

“I do! You could probably defeat a bush now!” Matt ignored Jaune’s concerned expression at his statement, simply continuing his walk. “Anyways, time for you to catch the Bullhead to Forever Fall.” 

Jaune checked his scroll, which disagreed with Matt’s words. “What? That’s in just over an hour, we have plenty of time.” 

“Oh yeah!” Matt exclaimed, as if he just remembered something. “I had Nora change your clock to be an hour slow. We have… five minutes? Better run fast, Jaune!” And with that, Matt took off, vanishing within moments. 

Taking just a moment to take in the position of the sun, Jaune realized he had been duped, and burst out after Matt. “Damn you!” 

“Think of it as training!” Matt’s voice carried back to him. 

**-]l[-**

“Nora! Stop eating all the sap! We’ll never get done at this rate,” Jaune grumbled as he tapped another orange-leafed tree, handing a full jar of sap to Pyrrha who stood with a bag of them. Across the clearing was team RWBY, much more efficient in their sap-gathering efforts—mainly thanks to _not having Nora_ —and completing the triangle was team MALN, each with their own unique ways of harvesting sap. 

...Jaune wasn’t saying that stabbing the trees with a saw wasn’t a good way to get the sap… but he wasn’t saying it was, either. Strangely, Jaune hadn’t seen the fourth team of their year at all, CRDL having seemingly disappeared. In fact, Jaune noted that CRDL had been avoiding being in the general vicinity of MALN _at all_ for the past week. He supposed that NoLegs was really quite scary, but it was still a surprise to Jaune that they had actually stopped with the rampant bullying. 

In fact… Jaune had seen neither hide nor hair of Cardin the entire field trip. He had tossed one last jar of sap to Pyrrha—finishing up the pair’s quota—and was about to ask his team their thoughts when a series of crashes sounded through the red leaves. Immediately following, Jaune recognized the voice of Cardin shouting out in anger, and glanced in the direction of the commotion. “Do you think we should go check it out?” he asked the group. 

“Nah,” Matt declined. “It’s just NoLegs reminding Cardin not to be a bully… apparently he was trying to set some kind of foe on us, but NoLegs foiled his eviiiiiil plot. Now they’re playing a game.” 

Matt’s words were punctuated by the crash of a tree falling over, and Jaune could’ve sworn he saw NoLegs flying through the air, jars of sap somehow held in his hands. 

“Well, Matt… If you’re sure.” 

“Of course! Would I lie to you—wait, don’t answer that. Anyways, NoLegs won’t hurt him. He’ll be fiiiiiiine.” 

**-]l[-**

**Omake time!**

**_Team MALN’s spars pt. 1  
Matt vs Weiss_ **

_This one probably happens twoish days after chapter three._

Weiss began the match by launching herself with a glyph, flying toward the air straight at Matt who simply stood in the starting zone, fiddling with his Aura monitor, sword still sheathed. 

_Click!_

Weiss’ rapier, Myrtenaster spun slightly, a vial of blue Dust being selected by its wielder, and a moment later Weiss sunk the tip of the rapier into Matt’s shoulder. Her eyes met Matt’s, right as he began to raise a hand toward her, and then she pulled the trigger, Dust enveloping Matt, before freezing the boy into a statue. 

Yanking her blade back, Weiss took a step back to admire her handiwork. After seeing just how badly NoLegs had beaten Blake she had been very concerned upon getting this match. However, seeing the boy’s Aura meter show up blank (causing Professor Goodwitch to simply mutter, “Don’t kill him.”) had certainly raised her confidence. 

And, if the complete and utter _ease_ with which she had just defeated the boy showed anything, it was that his showing during the initiation was complete and utter luck. With that thought, Weiss turned to Professor Goodwitch and awaited the match verdict. 

Professor Goodwitch herself was visibly shocked at the outcome of the match, but her professionality came through, and within moments she was speaking. “And the winner is—” 

_Crack…_

Weiss’ eyes darted back to her frozen opponent at the sound. It certainly wasn’t impossible to shatter her ice, but to do it while frozen solid? That would be a feat. 

And a feat it certainly was. 

The moment she heard her ice shatter, Weiss was protecting her eyes with one arm, protecting herself with Myrtenaster, and backing away from Matt. By the time the shards of ice stopped flying, a few seconds had passed, easily enough time for any warrior to have reached Weiss and attacked her. So why hadn’t her opponent? 

Lowering her arm, Weiss gazed across the stage, eyes widening as she took in exactly what Matt was doing. 

When he had raised his arm during her attack, she had thought he was protesting the action or some equally idiotic action. No, if her eyes weren’t deceiving her, Matt had been yawning, and had been politely covering his mouth. 

And then, nearly five seconds after freeing himself from the ice, Matt finished yawning, and moved his hand from his mouth to his back, grabbing the handle of his blade. Whipping it off his shoulder it was displayed to the class to see—a long red handle connected to a small orange sphere… and then nothing. No blade, _nothing_. 

“My bad. I didn’t sleep enough last night,” Matt stated, before the rod of metal in his hands straight up _ignited_ in flames, forming a massive longsword, easily as tall as the boy wielding it, made entirely out of some form of hardened fire. 

And then Matt struck back. He didn’t move as fast as NoLegs, but when he moved it was with purpose. He kicked off the stage, a slight puff of dust emitting as his legs left the ground, and he flew through the air toward Weiss, who only had the state of mind to move her blade into a guard position. 

Not that it did any good, consider how Matt wasn’t even aiming for her in the first place. No, for Matt was targeting the ground at Weiss’ feet. His massive blade dug into the wooden floor, scorching it as he did so, and for a moment, Weiss thought that perhaps he had missed. 

And then a massive spike of ice erupted from the stage beneath her. It would’ve full-on impaled Weiss were it not for her Aura, and even then said Aura was immediately depleted to the red. 

And even as Weiss listened to Professor Goodwitch call the match in favor of MALN’s leader, Weiss’ thoughts had only one target. 

Matt had just taken her down with a single attack, an ice attack no less… and he had done it with a blade of literal fire. 

What the hell. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I… don’t like this chapter. Might be because Jaunedice is irritating to write, and even more irritating to try and write well, might be because I was really tired when I wrote most of this. But :shrug: I hope it’s good enough. Next up is The Stray and Black and White.
> 
> I toyed with a lot of different things this chapter, giving Cardin a semblance (as the reason he never gets called out for his bullying), having NoLegs eviscerate CRDL on-screen, having Jaune and Pyrrha have their rooftop chat, but in the end I settled with the workshop chat, and I feel that it worked out pretty well. I basically quoted Ruby word-for-word with what she says to Jaune, but let’s be honest, that was the best part of Forever Fall pt. 1, and like some of the best dialogue in Volume One, so how could I not include it.
> 
> Anyways… Eh, I went through it right before posting as a final edit, and it’s… okay. Not my favorite chapter, but it’ll do. Don’t expect another chapter this month, or until late September at the earliest. I’m participating in my first gift exchange on Ao3, w/ the r/NarutoFanfiction folks, so I’ll be focusing on actually writing for that, and then I need to finally update my other fic.
> 
> Anyways, till next time. If you enjoyed, favorite, if you want to read the latest chapter as soon as it is posted, follow, and if you have something to say, please leave a review!


	5. Chapter Go

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _BFR is tied for 3rd place by Favorites on FFN for overall EBF fics (crossovers and non). Meanwhile on Ao3 it’s sitting at a real solid tie for 21st (out of 42 fics) on Ao3 sorted by Kudos. That’s pretty cool._

**A Battle Fantasy in Remnant**

**Chapter Five**

**Black, White, Blue, and also a bit of Pink, Green, Grey, and… dang that’s a lot of colors.**

**-]l[-**

_“—understand why this is causing such a problem!"_

Lance’s fingers slid across his controller, hitting each button precisely when needed, perfectly countering every one of Matt’s strikes. To his side, the blonde in question had a savage grin plastered to his face as his own controller shook, buttons being mashed. 

_“—le like me?"_

On the bed beyond Matt sat Natalie and Anna, books open, their homework being written and edited. “No, Anna, Professor Goodwitch will _not_ accept that as an answer.” 

_“—want to know why I despise the—”_

“Damn, they’re loud,” Lance muttered, just barely catching one of Matt’s attacks on his character’s sword. “Anna, could ya close the window?” 

_“—wait! Come back!"_

Anna nodded, stretching as she stood up, and made her way to the window to slide it shut. “Seems like they’re just about finished anyways. I’ll check in with them tomorrow to make sure everything is okay, but tonight it’s probably better if they can sleep on it.” 

Lance shrugged. “You’re a better person than me, for caring at all.” In his pocket, Lance’s Scroll vibrated violently, startling him enough to drop his controller. A muttered curse at Matt’s victory later, and Lance dug out his Scroll from the many pockets in his coat. A quick glance informed him of the contents of the message. “I’ll be headed into Vale on Sunday. The guy I met with finally got back to me, so it’s time to put the Ion Cannon up.” 

“We can all go in together then,” Natalie declared. Closing her textbook, she rose, drew the curtains closed, and then placed the book back on the room’s small shelf. “Matt and I will be headed out to eat, and you’ll need someone to keep you from blowing up Remnant—if you’re up for that, Anna?” 

“Sure!” 

“Wonderful. And NoLegs can… Where is NoLegs?” 

Matt looked up from his seat, his gaze darting across the room, only to come up empty. NoLegs was nowhere to be seen. 

“Huh,” Matt said. “I guess he had somewhere to be.” 

**-]l[-**

Blake walked across the plaza, her steps silent against the stone tiling. In front of her stood the massive statue that every new student saw after they disembarked the bullhead that carried them to the school. 

Damn that girl. Things had been going so well until today. She had no right to say the things that she had, no right to compare pain. No right to scare Blake away from her team—they had almost been like family before then. Damn her. 

Blake paused in front of the statue, taking in how it towered over the courtyard. One hand reached up to her bow, before suddenly something was standing on top of the statue, perched on the huntsman’s head. 

Blake’s hand instantly moved from her bow to the hilt of Gambol Shroud, and she withdrew it an inch from its sheath before she recognized the silhouette. After a moment, it came into focus, and NoLegs hopped down, settling in front of Blake. 

“...I thought you didn’t like me,” she murmured, resheathing her weapon. “Are you here to laugh at me? The silly girl who got goaded by a _Schnee_.” 

NoLegs looked at her silently for a moment, before shaking his head, and nudging her hand with his head. A half-smile formed on Blake’s face, and she turned away. “Alright then, if that’s what you want.” 

Returning to her original goal, Blake reached both hands up. She took a hold of the ribbon that bound her bow in place, and undid it with a quick pull, revealing her Faunus ears to the cold night air. 

She turned back to NoLegs, patting him once, before being startled by a voice from behind her. 

“I _knew_ you’d look better without the bow.” 

Standing on the ground behind her was the monkey Faunus that her team had been chasing earlier in the day. Blake gave him a stare, staying silent, before turning away from the statue and making her way down Beacon’s main avenue. She expected both of her unexpected visitors to leave at her silence, but to her surprise, both followed her. NoLegs to her left, and the blonde stowaway to her right. 

Turning, she gave both of them a raised eyebrow, to which the monkey Faunus responded, “You looked like you could use some company—seems this little guy here thought the same. If you don’t wanna talk that’s fine, I can wait. Name’s Sun, by the way.” 

Blake nodded at that, before giving NoLegs one final glance, and leading the way out of Beacon’s gates. 

**-]l[-**

“So, Lance,” Anna began. “Who exactly did you talk to to get this space?” 

The pair were standing in an abandoned junkyard on the perimeter of Vale. A large space had been cleared out, only to be filled with the massive metallic form of Lance’s Ion Cannon, perched on top of the Neon Valkyrie and pointed toward the sky. 

“Some guy named Torchwick, I think. Got directed to him after I beat up a bartender.” 

“And you’re planning on just shooting this into orbit?” 

“Yep. I have enough missiles for the job, and the Neon Valkyrie will serve as a launch platform. It should be ready in about ten minutes.” 

Anna glanced at the darkening sky. “Only took four hours for you to set it up, so it could be worse.” 

“Oi! If you have somewhere better to be.” 

Anna laughed. “Not that I know of.” 

A moment later, her Scroll buzzed. Giving it a glance, she appeared to have just received a message from the Headmaster, Ozpin. 

“On second thought, we do appear to have somewhere to be.” 

Lance turned from his tank to see what she was talking about, drawing his own Scroll to see the same message, due to it having been sent to the entirety of team MALN. 

  
“Well,” he began, “I won’t be leaving this out here, not after the amount of time I put into it… and Matt and Natalie probably won’t see it until after their date, since Natalie doesn’t allow Scrolls at the table, so it looks like you’ll be the only one to answer. Good luck.” 

Anna stared at him, deadpan. “Keep your luck, Ozpin says it’s just some criminal named Roman… Torchwick. Lance, are you associating with criminals?” 

Lance pursed his lips, taking a slightl step back. “Not knowingly, no?” 

Anna hummed. “Better not be. I’ve got somewhere to go—don’t screw this up, or if you do, don’t come crying about it to me.” 

Lance nodded. “I got this, go capture a criminal or whatever.” 

Anna retrieved her ocarina from a pocket, and raised it to her lips. A quick tune was played, before the wind was swirling around her, forming a small tornado. A grin settled on her lips. “I always wanted to try this.” 

Then the winds increased in power tenfold, launching Anna off of the ground and into the sky. 

“Damn,” muttered Lance, turning back to his makeshift rocket. “I’m jealous.” 

**-]l[-**

The Bullhead, in which Roman Torchwick rode, shuddered in the evening winds as it flew toward its destination. Beside the master thief sat his partner in crime, the mute Neo, and beyond her, one of Fall’s brats, Mercury. 

Normally, Roman would have gone on this mission alone, but Fall—who had shown up earlier that day—had insisted he take the pair with him, “just in case.” So naturally, fearing fiery reprisal, Roman agreed. Thankfully, due to Fall’s plan to infiltrate Beacon, the boy was wearing dark clothes and a hood, keeping Roman from having to see his near-constant smirk. 

“We’re here, Sir,” the White Fang pilot interrupted his musings, and Roman stood up. 

“Bring us down, quickly now,” Roman ordered, gesturing for Mercury to stand up with Neo. The trio stood by the bay door, and only had to wait a few seconds before the Bullhead thudded onto the ground. With a quiet hiss, the bay door slid up, and Roman stepped out of the ship, his two compatriots following him, a step behind. 

Landing beside Roman’s Bullhead was another Bullhead, while another two hovered above the docks, pausing just long enough to offload a few dozen White Fang soldiers onto the concrete docks. 

“Alright mutts! You know what we’re here for, so let’s get moving. We want to be in and out before any wannabe heroes show up!” Roman ordered. While the Faunus scrambled to prepare one of the shipping containers to be moved, Neo walked up beside him, and gestured toward the roof of one of the buildings surrounding the docks. Roman glanced up, before groaning loudly. 

“You have got to be kidding me. The wannabe heroes were here before we even showed up.” 

As he finished speaking, Roman took a step back, just in time to dodge a black-haired girl who landed in front of him, weapon in one hand, and the other wrapped around the bow in her hair. She pulled it, causing it to unravel and reveal a pair of Faunus ears beneath, and began speaking. “Brothers of the White Fang! Why are you aiding this scum?” 

Roman rolled his eyes at the girl, before gesturing to Mercury. “Shut her up, will you?” 

A savage grin lit up the boy’s face. “With pleasure!” 

Mercury kicked off the ground, the force of his movements shattering the concrete into a cloud of dust. The girl’s eyes widened, and she raised her weapon, barely catching Mercury’s kick on the side of the gun. She was blown back by the force of the attack, flying into the side of a shipping container, denting it on impact. Dropping to the ground, the girl had just enough time to roll out of the way of a followup kick from Mercury. 

“Blake!” a voice called from on top of the containers, leaping down and being clearly visible as a blonde monkey Faunus boy, with a staff in hand. The newcomer engaged Mercury, managing to beat away the assassin for a few moments and giving the Faunus girl—Blake—time to recover. 

Turning away from Mercury, Roman began shouting orders at the Faunus. Some of them had been distracted by the fight going on, and had stopped working. So be it. Mercury would be able to take care of the two kids, so there was no reason to stop the theft. He expected the fight to be over in under a minute, given the skill of the assassin. 

What he didn’t expect was for Mercury to get thrown clean across the courtyard, one leg encased in ice. They were academy students! Was it really so hard to deal with two of them? Irritated, Roman turned around, only to be surprised by the sight of a blue furred ‘cat’ standing between Mercury’s fallen form, and the pair of students. In one practically-invisible-paw, the cat held a golden polearm with red ribbons attached to the blade, and in the other, the cat had a red and gold shield. 

“Oh great! Now the _actual_ animals are here,” Roman cried out, exasperated, before barely catching the cat’s first attack on Melodic Cudgel. Pushing back against the attack, Roman leveraged his greater mass to throw that damn cat away from him, only for it to flicker through the air, appearing behind Roman mid-stab. Reacting as fast as he could, Roman was just barely able to slip out of the way of the attack, leaping back to regain some ground. 

The cat was fast, faster than Roman, that was for certain, but he had a few advantages on his side beside his greater size. Dashing back, Roman was able to dodge the first of the cat’s slashes, though the second just barely caught him, ripping a gash into his side, as well as causing the air surrounding him to shatter as if made of glass. A moment later, and Roman had teleported slightly, about five inches to the side, only for the illusion to be shattered almost immediately by another blazing fast attack. 

Again, Roman was clipped by the edge of the attack, the cat too fast for the illusions to do more than slightly decrease its accuracy. This time, as the illusion reformed, three copies of Roman appeared, each dodging back with slightly different angles. The hope was to distract the cat long enough for Roman to get away. That hope was shattered—just like the illusion, when the cat dashed from where it stood to all three Romans in almost sync, destroying each with glowing slashes. 

The illusion shattered, revealing Roman’s bloody torso, a pair of cuts adorning it, flying through the air to slam against a shipping container. Roman’s blood pooled beneath him, staining the Schnee logo, and his head lolled to the side, his eyes unfocused. The cat advanced upon him, fauchard level with his chest, before spinning the weapon and going to knock Roman out with the shaft of the weapon. 

—the illusion shattered, and even as the cat spun—already moving faster than any Huntsman Roman had ever seen—Roman’s shot was already out of the barrel and halfway across the space dividing the two. The cat made as if to cut the blast out of the air, but was just a fraction-of-a-second too slow. The reddish flare impacted with the crate behind the cat. 

A massive explosion roared into the night as the Dust within was ignited, and a shockwave swept across the dock, throwing Roman toward where the White Fang soldiers still worked. Smoke billowed hundreds of feet into the air, and behind that obscuring curtain was visible various elemental effects at work; lightning flickered at the same time as ice burned, the entire thing warped slightly by the gravity Dust present within. 

“Well that’ll certainly get the police coming—” Roman lamented, before cutting off with a cough, blood splattering onto the concrete in front of him. Neo quickly walked over to him, supporting Mercury with one arm, and crouched down beside Roman, giving him a questionable look. 

“Of course we’re calling it!” Roman cut himself off, with another cough. “The Huntsmen will be all over this place in minutes. Let’s get out—of here.” 

Neo nodded, before tapping a few buttons on her Scroll. A moment later, and the two hovering Bullheads landed, bay doors opening. The White Fang soldiers finished carrying the last few boxes, before leaping into the two empty Bullheads, causing them to lift off again. Neo gestured to Mercury and then Roman, and once the former lifted the latter—causing him to give yet another grunt of pain—the trio made it to one of the final Bullheads. The moment they were inside, Neo rapped a fist on a bulkhead, and the door closed, Bullhead rising. 

On the deck where he had been laid, Roman muttered, “Could have been worse.” 

**-]l[-**

Anna heard the explosion when she was over downtown Vale, and the smoke was visible almost immediately after. Worry playing across her face, she sped up her flight, until she arrived above the docks just a minute later. Canceling the tempest that had carried her, Anna plummeted to the docks, resummoning the wind just a dozen feet above the ground to slow her fall. 

As she landed, she took in the area. Off in the distance, Anna could hear the sound of Bullheads flying—though they were obscured by the smoke and oncoming night—and right near her, Anna could hear the sound of two people coughing, just barely audible through the crackling of the flames. 

Striding toward where she thought the sounds were coming from, Anna came across a pair of teenagers collapsed on the ground, surrounded by flames. On the left, a monkey Faunus that Anna didn’t recognize was covered with his still flickering Aura, while to his side, Blake, who had no Aura and had gathered several scrapes and bruises, as well as a worrying gash along one arm. 

Crouching down next to the pair, Anna pulled out her flute and played a short tune. Magic rushed through Blake, forming into an intricate pink flower in the air above her. Satisfied, Anna watched as Blake’s wounds knitted closed, bruises turning to fresh pink skin. 

Just as she was going to lift the pair up to move them, she was interrupted by the arrival of Ruby, followed closely by an orange-haired girl in a green dress. 

“Anna!” Ruby shouted. “Is that Blake!?” 

“Yeah. She’s fine now, but she’s out of Aura,” Anna explained to the pair, as they came level with her. “The other one is fine. Help me carry them out of here before something else explodes.” 

Ruby nodded, and, after a moment of struggle, lifted Blake into her arms, leaving Anna with the other one. Ruby’s companion, on the other hand, made no move to help, instead seemingly scanning the burning dockyard. Just as Ruby and Anna made to move, she raised her arm and said, “Wait. Friend Ruby, Anna. There is someone else here.” 

Anna’s eyes narrowed. It was true that this was a lot of destruction for the two junior Huntsmen, more the scene she would expect after Lance or Matt fought, but who would still be here? And also, how could this girl tell? “Where?” she asked. 

The girl pointed toward the thickest wall of flames. “There.” 

Anna nodded, raising her load over her shoulder, before setting off toward the flames. Waving her one free arm, she summoned a gust of wind to clear the smoke and extinguish the flames, revealing a large crystal of ice, with a dark shape held within it. Just then, a large crack appeared in the block of ice, quickly followed by another few, before the ice finally shattered. Dropping out of the ice came the drenched, burnt, and crushed form of NoLegs. 

“So this is where you went,” Anna muttered, reaching into her bag and pulling out a fresh garnished hamburger. Ignoring Ruby and the orange-haired girl’s looks, she threw the hamburger straight at NoLegs’ mouth, the cat practically absorbing it. A moment later, and the cat hopped back to his feet with a loud meow. 

“What the heck!?” Ruby exclaimed. “What just happened?” 

“I healed him!” 

“With a hamburger??”  


“Of course!” Anna paused. “Oh that’s right, you guys don’t do that here. Sorry, it’s a thing from our hometown.” 

“Y-you can just feed people food and they’re suddenly fine!?” 

“I’ll explain later,” Anna fended off Ruby’s questions. “We should get back to Beacon. While we walk, tell me about your new friend?” 

“Well, this is Penny...” 

**-]l[-**

“Are you sure you want to drag them into this, Ozpin?” Glynda asked him, from where she stood beside his desk. “They’re just children. You can still change your mind and just thank them.” 

Ozpin laced his fingers together. “No, Glynda. We’ve seen hidden depths to them already, and I feel it would be a mistake to leave them out of this—especially with how willing they are to help. As for them being children… needs must, and I do not believe we will defeat _Her_ with how things are now.” 

“What do you mean, Oz?” 

“The world is becoming a darker place. The reports Qrow sends back paint a dire picture, not to mention the nearly successful attempt on Amber’s life. Events are coming to a head, and we need more allies.” 

Glynda pursed her lips. “If you’re sure, Oz.” 

Ozpin made to respond, but was cut off by the office doors opening. Through them stepped team MALN, in various states of dress. Anna was dressed in combat gear, bow slung over her back; Lance was covered in oil, pistol slung against his hip; NoLegs was dressed for combat, while both Matt and Natalie were wearing fancier clothes, unsurprising, given how the pair were just out for dinner. 

“Headmaster,” Natalie nodded to him. “You wanted to talk?” 

“Yes,” Ozpin nodded solemnly. “In light of recent events, I wish to ask for your help.” 

Lance raised an eyebrow. “With what? You seem to be doing fine running the school.” 

Ozpin considered. “What if I told you that magic—no, not the magic you five claim to use, a different magic—was real?” 

He studied the team in front of him for a moment, taking in their unperturbed looks. “I imagine it is not much of a shock for you five, is it. Nonetheless, if I told anyone else in Beacon, they would be shocked.” 

“Alright, magic is real,” Matt agreed. “What’s so important about that?” 

“Well… there is a fairy tale in Remnant, called _The Story of the Seasons_ which tells of four sisters who met an old man, and were granted immense magical powers. These women are called the Maidens.” Ozpin glanced at the group, and upon seeing Lance and Anna already looking distracted chose to speed up the story. “To make a long story short, the Maidens are real, and for centuries Remnant has been embroiled in a secret war between a faction that I now lead, dedicated to protecting the Maidens from those who would wish them harm, and a group led by an evil woman named Salem who covets the Maiden’s power as her own.” 

“And you want our help?” Matt asked. 

“Simply put, but yes,” Ozpin answered. 

Matt glanced back at his team and asked, “You guys good with that?” 

A series of confirmations came in response, and he turned back to Ozpin. “Alright, we’re in.” 

Ozpin raised an eyebrow. “That simple? You don’t expect any more information, nor demand any reward?” 

“Nah. Well, loot is nice, but the foes are half the fun! Besides, there hasn’t been all too much to do since we arrived.“ 

“Remarkable.” Ozpin shared a look with Glynda. “I wish all my recruitments could go this smoothly.” 

“That’s just how we roll!” Matt agreed. “Anyways, what’s up first? Give you some materials? Retrieve some orbs of power? Defeat the evil foe leader?” 

“Nothing so grand, I’m afraid,” Ozpin returned. “We’re still waiting for another one of my agents to return with more information before we can make a decision. For now I just want you to keep an eye around Beacon for any suspicious persons, and be prepared to respond to any operations by the White Fang, as I suspect they are being manipulated by Salem.” 

Ozpin paused, glancing at Glynda. “Actually… I heard from Miss Rose that you had some kind of healing magic, as well as healing food?” 

Anna nodded. “Yep! Natz is better at the magic than I am, though. I just dabble.” 

“Intriguing. Then, if you would be willing, Miss Natalie, we have a very important person here at Beacon who has been in critical condition for many months. If you could take a look at her and possibly heal her, that would be a great boon to our cause.” 

“Of course,” Natalie agreed. “And, if that’ll be all, Headmaster, we need to get back to our rooms. The boys still haven’t finished their homework.” 

Ozpin gave a slight smile at that. “That will be all. Thank you for your time, and for agreeing to help. You four could change the fate of Remnant. Good night.” 

**-]l[-**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Happy Holidays!**
> 
> **Guys it's late september right now, don’t look outside, don’t look at a calendar, just believe me… Alright, so this chapter is late. I got distracted with Worm fanfiction, Wheel of Time, and binging all of Attack on Titan.**
> 
> **Anyways… RWBY isn’t on Youtube anymore, which is kind’ve inconvenient for research. I’ll admit I didn’t really watch this episode much at all in preparation, since I just didn’t feel like opening the RT website.**
> 
> **In this chapter we had butterflies. Roman gets away w/ Dust, and the gang doesn’t get as friendly with Blake. Not sure how well the NoLegs vs. Roman/Neo fight went, but I’m hoping I pulled it off well enough to keep it from seeming like NoLegs just got nerfed into the ground. I tried to portray it more like a losing fight for Roman, but via overwhelming Dustpower he was able to take NoLegs down, even if not very permanently. Basically NoLegs is a cat, and not very good against illusions, though his absurd speed still kinda destroyed Roman.**
> 
> **For some non-story news, the EBF Collection is getting closer to completion, so that’ll be fun to pick up when it comes out. I haven’t beaten EBF4 before, even though I got pretty close a couple of years ago—and I’ve never played any of the other games that Matt makes besides Bullet Heaven—so it’ll be a fun dive to see what else he’s made.**
> 
> **Last few things: Is anyone else bugged by the FFN character tag for Matt (the character) just being Matt R. (the game Dev)? Anyways, thanks to everyone who left a review, whenever I feel down, I read them, and then proceed to procrastinate for another month.**
> 
> **Kudo/Subscribe, and leave a comment if you have a question/want to have a chat, I do my best to respond to any questions I get.**
> 
> **‘Til the next update, sometime in 2021, ideally before Febuary, and definitely before my birthday.**
> 
> **-Berix**


	6. Chapter Six

**A Battle Fantasy in Remnant**

**Chapter Six**

**“Well, that was easy.”**

**-]l[-**

“Uh guys,” Jaune spoke over his shoulder. “Why are you huddled against the wall?” 

“No reason,” Ruby quickly responded, peeking over Lance’s shoulder as they both crouched halfway behind the door to the room. “No reason at all.” 

It was spring break at Beacon, and the three would-be-forgers had foregone a day of vacation to upgrade Crocea Mors. Well, Jaune would be upgrading his sword. Lance and Ruby were just there to provide moral support and commentary. 

“Uhhh, okay then.” Jaune accepted her words and turned back to the forge, where Crocea Mors sat mostly obscured within the forge, heating. The Dust fire below flared occasionally, while pipes to the side fed in trickles of Fire Dust to keep the heat at the preferred temperatures. Laid on a table to Jaune’s side were numerous parts and tools, totaling to a bit over four dozen items. It was a realm of metal, gears, Dust vials, and workshop tools. 

Jaune nodded seriously, putting the matter of where his friends sat out of his mind, and, after slipping on a thick pair of gloves, grabbed a pair of tongs in one hand and a hammer in the other. Stepping on a pedal on the floor, Jaune triggered a mechanism. It dumped a pinch of Ice Dust into the fire that fed the forge, causing the flames to lessen and revealing the ready-to-work blade of Jaune’s sword. 

Holding the hammer in-between his elbow, Jaune moved Crocea Mors, placing it on the anvil to the side of the forge, before re-grabbing his hammer. Thinking back to how Ruby had described the process of forging the parts to Crescent Rose, he brought the hammer down, causing a loud crash to ring out through the shop. So began the forging. 

**-]l[-**

“Crocea Mors is like hundreds of years old, and a family heirloom, right?” Lance muttered to Ruby, as the pair of them retook their seats within the forge room, threat of explosions mostly gone. 

“Uhuh.” 

“Are they just okay with Jaune reforging it like this? I know that _if_ I had kids, no way in hell would I let them mess with my guns without asking first,” Lance continued. 

“Uhuh.” 

“So y’know, did Jaune actually ask—you aren’t listening to me at all. Damnit, Rose,” Lance said, exasperated, as he elbowed Ruby. 

“Ack! Sorry!” Ruby shrieked quietly, surprised at the attack. “Sorry, I was watching to make sure Jaune is doing everything right.” 

“And is he?” 

“Seems to be. Anyways you were wondering if he… had permission to do this, right?” 

“ _Uhuh_.” 

Ruby pouted at the parroted response. “He mentioned to me that no one in his family had used it in a couple generations anyways, so it’s not like anyone will miss it. Besides, I don’t think his family situation is all that good anyways, so I doubt he cares.” 

“I see,” Lance said. “Well, I think I’ll give him a present once he finishes up the first stage of forging.” 

The stage in question would be when Jaune successfully prepared his sword for the transformation into a hybrid weapon. That is when Ruby would step in to help, as she had much more experience than either Lance or Jaune. Lance was really only there to provide parts for the weapon. That and moral support. He might be strong enough to blow up a city pretty easily, but his crafting skills started and ended at making robots… speaking of which... 

It was a bit under an hour later when Jaune finished preparing the blade. By the time Lance made it over to where Ruby and Jaune were hunched over a table, Crocea Mors was completely disassembled, spread out into various piles of parts. 

“Oi, Jaune,” Lance called out. 

“Hmm?” 

“I heard you needed a gun part for your new sword, and since Matt’s taken such a liking to you I’ve got one for you.” 

“Oh really? That’s awesome!” 

“Eh, you seem like a decent person.” Lance reached into his bag, and retrieved a blue-gray pistol with small spikes of ice poking out of it at random points. “Here ya go, kid.” 

“Anyways,” Lance continued. “I’m gonna head out and get some stuff set up. Have fun, you two.” 

**-]l[-**

A little under a week had passed since Lance had helped with Jaune’s forging, and school was back in session. They hadn’t even made it a full day before teams RWBY and JNPR had caused some chaos. 

“They’re really going at it, aren’t they.” Lance kicked his chair back slightly to allow for a group of panicking students to pass in front of him. “Any idea what got them all in such a ‘good’ mood?” 

“Mmmhmmph!” Anna agreed, her mouth full. “Remember that big adventure they went on at the end of last semester? Apparently some stuff came out of it that brought tensions up, but they’ve since talked it over and are good.” 

“That’s good to hear—I was distracted helping Jaune with his new sword, and getting some parts set up for robots,” Lance said. “Speaking of helping people out… Natz, has Ozpin gotten back to you about that person you offered to heal?” 

“Ozpin’s waiting for someone named Ironwood to get to Vale. I think he was part of the Illuminati like Ozpin. Was supposed to arrive today, I think,” Matt answered for his girlfriend from where he stood above her, protecting her homework from any food that might fly over toward team MALN’s now empty table. 

“Sounds like a cool guy… Actually, I’ll head out and see if I can find him.” 

“Before you go,” Matt interjected. “You mentioned Jaune has a new sword?” 

“Yeah, me and Rose helped him make it, though I didn’t catch the end of it, and haven’t seen him for a few days.” 

“I’ll have to catch him after lunch for a spar, then,” Matt decided. 

“You do that.” Lance stood up from the table, and ducked under a pair of watermelons thrown by Jaune. Carefully weaving his way through the crossfire, he was able to make it to the one of the cafeteria exits. The door slid open as he reached it to reveal a pair of teenagers, one with blue hair in the middle of posing, and the other with blonde hair looking the first up and down. 

“Hello,” Lance greeted them. 

The two returned his hellos and introduced themselves as Sun and Neptune. Lance made to introduce himself, but was interrupted by Sun. 

“Wait! You’re… Lance, right?” 

“Yeah. How’d ya know?” 

“Blake told me about your team, and team JNPR while we were in Vale,” Sun answered. 

“I see. Well, everyone is inside throwing food, so let’s take a walk,” Lance explained, leaning forward to dodge a turkey. “I hear the Atlesian military is here, so let’s go look at them. I’m told they have large guns.” 

Sun and Neptune exchanged a concerned look, which Lance ignored, and the three of them headed away from the dining hall just as Professor Goodwitch stepped inside. 

“We’ll uh, have to catch them later,” Sun muttered to Neptune. “I’ve heard that that teacher is super scary.” 

**-]l[-**

“So, Jaune!” Matt exclaimed, sliding to a stop in front of Jaune and his team. “I heard you got a new sword?” 

Jaune’s eyes flicked to his waist, where Crocea Mors was sheathed. “W-well, more I modified the sword I already had. What about it?” 

“Nothing much, I just want to spar since I didn’t get a chance during the break.” 

“That’s really more your fault… It’s not that I was doing anything during the break.” 

Matt laughed. “Well yeah, but I was busy 100%ing this new RPG, and I couldn’t just stop halfway through. But now we’re both free, so let’s fight!” 

“Ah… but my team needs to get unpacked?” Jaune reasoned weakly. 

“No, no,” Pyrrha interrupted. “This is the perfect chance for me to see your new sword, _and_ how your sessions with Matt go.” 

That did make sense, Jaune supposed. Pyrrha had gone back to Mistral during the break to visit her family, so she hadn’t had a chance to see his newly modified sword either. The trip was expensive, but as both a prized tournament fighter and mascot, Pyrrha probably had the money to burn. 

“Alright then, if Ren and Nora and okay to go on?” 

“Of course,” Ren agreed, stepping past Jaune and his teachers, Nora trailing him. 

Damn. That had been Jaune’s last chance to get out of this. Time to get beat up by Matt—and while Pyrrha was watching, no less. 

It was a short ten-minute walk to get to the sparring rooms, and once the trio arrived, Jaune and Pyrrha threw their bags onto the bleachers, and Pyrrha took a seat beside them while Jaune went down to the arena floor where Matt was already waiting. 

“So, uh, how are we doing this?” Jaune asked. 

“Same as usual,” Matt was leaning on one of his swords as he answered. If Jaune remembered correctly, this one was called Heaven’s Gate, and the massive gold guard certainly was recognizable. “You try to hit me, and we go until I get bored, you land a hit, or you get tired,” he explained for Pyrrha’s benefit. 

Same rules, but an all new Jaune… well, partially new at least. 

“All right!” Jaune shouted, drawing Crocea Mors and pointing it at Matt. 

His new sword didn’t look very different; still a rather plain, if well-made longsword. Straight edges, golden handguard, and a blue handle. But, if you knew the blade well enough, or looked close enough, the differences became visible. Running along the length of the blade were a number of lines—places where the sword would split for its mechashift functions, and within the guard, one could just barely see the hints of a trigger. 

Compared to Crescent Rose, it looked much cleaner, lacking the same number of exposed gears and shift points as Ruby’s sniper-scythe, but given the much larger number of mechashift forms that Ruby’s weapon had, compared to Crocea Mors’ two, it made sense. 

Returning his mind to the fight, Jaune stared straight into Matt’s eyes in some sort of sparring tradition. Every time the two had fought, Jaune had started the same. Pointing Crocea Mors at Matt in a pseudo-salute, meeting eyes, and promising to himself that this would be the one—the time when he would finally win. 

And then Jaune triggered the mechashift function, and in less than a second, Crocea Mors’ sword form was no more, leaving the barrel of a pistol pointed straight at Matt’s face while the rest of the mass of the weapon wrapped around Jaune’s hand in an odd form of gauntlet. 

**_Bang! Bang! Bang!_**

Three shots rang out through the room as Jaune fired on his teacher. If the bastard thought he could just stand still every single fight, then he had something coming. 

Lowering the gauntlet-pistol form of Crocea Mors, Jaune took in the situation, while at the same time raising his shield to guard from any potential counter-attacks. Several meters across from him, Matt still stood, uncaring, practically taking a nap on the hilt of his sword. 

Jaune paused at that. Where had his bullets gone? Glancing around the room, Jaune found his answer. On the wall behind Matt, several feet to either side, were three middling-sized spikes of ice, the afternoon light streaming in from the room’s windows reflecting off of them. 

Jaune had missed completely. 

“Damnit!” 

“You know, Jaune. Just having a gun doesn’t mean you can aim it,” Matt contributed, oh so helpfully. “I think Pyrrha can help you with that.” 

Jaune let out a sort of whine at the comment, it bit deep. 

“I hear you, I hear you. Learn to aim. Got it.” 

“Well, not right now. We’re still in a spar… though I am getting a bit bored, so…” 

And with those words, Matt was gone from across the room. Worst part is, in Jaune’s opinion, that he didn’t even need to see Matt moving, to know where he was going. Right behind Jaune, to tap him on the shoulder. 

“Dead.” 

“Damnit!” 

“Now you can spar with Pyrrha!” Matt exclaimed, hopping away from Jaune without a care. “I always fall asleep during Glynda’s class, so I never know if you and Weiss are just exceptionally bad or everyone is this weak compared to me.” 

Pyrrha let out a chuckle as she stood from the stands. “You didn’t need to phrase it like that, did you? Besides, if you really want to know, just accept my challenges in combat class already. I _am_ , after all, a four times champion. Besides, Weiss isn’t that bad.” 

“I mean, comparably… Weiss was pretty bad. Anyways, we can spar,” Matt conceded. “Right now, it’s time for you two to fight!” 

**-]l[-**

“Wait, are you making _spy robots_!?” Sun burst out, as he and Neptune stood behind Lance. The black-coated boy was crouched behind a bush, with a medium-sized red and black ball with two propellers sitting on the ground in front of him. 

“Yep, this is a Flybot,” Lance answered. “Took a while to get them made, but with Jaune and Ruby’s help it wasn’t _too_ hard.” 

“But _why do you need them??_ ” 

Lance didn’t respond immediately, playing around with the wires inside the Flybot, before slapping the panel closed and hopping backward as it floated into the air with a soft whine. 

“Gotta make a surveillance state, of course.” 

Sun and Neptune exchanged a concerned glance, an event happening more frequently the longer they spent with Lance. 

“Again, why is this necessary?” 

Just as Sun asked, the Flybot spun around, and the trio could hear the servos that made up its lens whine as the lens focused. Standing up from the dirt, Lance followed the Flybot’s gaze, catching sight of a tall man in a long white overcoat striding down the path toward Beacon. 

“See what I mean?” Lance asked rhetorically. “He looks interesting, so I need to spy on him!” 

“You know what, Lance?” Sun asked, from behind him. 

“Hmm?” 

“I think me and Neptune will just be leaving you to your spying on the _general of the Atlesian fleets!_ ” Sun practically whisper-shouted the last few words of that sentence, before he and Neptune evacuated from the situation. 

Lance, left alone, did not entirely understand. This guy was only a general, so why would Lance _not_ spy on him? Oh hey! Robots! 

Sure enough, the general had a retinue of robots following behind him. They were humanoid in structure, covered in white armor plating, and had a black skeleton serving for joints. In their arms they carried a white rifle. 

“Iiinteresting,” Lance drawled. He just _had_ to find out what these robots were made of, and where he could find one. This was the first example of robotics on this new world, and Lance wanted to compare notes with whomever made them. After taking several apart for pieces, of course. 

Course of action decided on, Lance retrieved his Scroll from a pocket, and messaged his team. 

_‘Going to find out who made some robots.’_

His duty of informing his team done, Lance relayed a command to his Flybot to search for more of the robots, watching it fly out toward Vale, before he followed it on foot. It was time to steal—err, investigate—some robots! 

**-]l[-**

James Ironwood, General of the Atlesian Navy strode down the hallways of Beacon, headed toward the Headmaster’s Office. He was headed to an appointment with Ozpin. Apparently the old man had found something which could possibly heal the Fall Maiden. 

The elevator doors slid open, and James scanned his scroll, before tapping on the button for Ozpin’s office. Security had risen since the last time James had visited, a few years before. If he had to guess, he would say it was a combination of the Maiden beneath the school, as well as the upcoming Vytal Festival. 

A short ride later, and the doors opened once more, allowing James to enter Ozpin’s office. 

“Oz,” he greeted the gray-haired man, receiving a nod in return. “What is this I hear about you finding a cure for the Maiden?” 

“Ah yes. One of the new students, a girl named Natalie, might be able to heal Amber. She should be here any moment.” 

“And you trust her?” James was suspicious. A new student pops up who might be able to heal the Maiden, and no one bats an eye? 

“It’s not like we have anything to lose, James,” Ozpin replied. “I suspect Salem already knows the Maiden is here, so she won’t learn anything more. But to answer your question, no. I don’t trust her. That said, I don’t believe we have a choice.” 

And with those ominous words Ozpin tapped a button on his Scroll and nodded to James. “She’ll be here soon.” 

Indeed, three minutes later, and the doors to the office opened. In strode the girl in question, Natalie, dressed in… was that a nurse outfit? Odd, and slightly concerning. Beyond the strange choice of clothing and hat, she was carrying a moss-covered cross-shaped gravestone, and wore a pair of golden earrings that were just visible beneath her bright ginger hair. 

“Headmaster,” she addressed Oz, ignoring James entirely. “You wanted to see me?” 

“Yes, Miss Natalie,” Oz responded. “Do you remember what we talked about last we met?” 

“Yeah, you wanted me to heal someone.” 

“Correct. Before we head to see her, I’d like to introduce you to James Ironwood, General of the Atlesian fleet, and a trusted friend and ally of mine. He, among others, holds special interest in seeing this young woman revived. I trust you have no objections to his presence?” 

The girl—Natalie—turned to look at James for a moment, and he could’ve sworn that he saw the tip of her gravestone/staff light up, but when his eyes opened from blinking there was no difference. “No, Headmaster. If you trust him, then it’s fine.” 

“Excellent,” Oz rose from his chair, leading James and Natalie back toward the elevator. “Then let us be on our way.” 

**-]l[-**

The elevator doors slid open after a short ride, and Ozpin led the way out, followed by James, Natalie, and Glynda—whom they had picked up right before heading beneath the school. 

As he stepped past the threshold, lights began popping into existence. First nearby, revealing they were emitted from almost lamppost-like lights, and then fading into the distance until they were just faint islands of light in the shadows of the underground halls. 

The Beacon Vault had long-since stopped impressing Ozpin—he had been alive during the age of magic, and mere large hallways would never stack up—but still, for something built without any magic, the massive vaulted ceilings, columned walls, and intricate floor designs were still a quite impressive sight. From the quiet gasp he heard from behind him, he could tell Natalie agreed. 

A modest walk later—the Vault did span the entirety of Beacon’s grounds, after all—and Ozpin led the group to a stop in front of a pair of large metallic boxes, shaped almost uncomfortably like coffins. Both had a large glass window in front, and behind the left window Ozpin saw the face of Amber, the Fall Maiden whom he had failed. 

“This is her?” Natalie asked, stepping up to stand beside him, staff tapping against the floor as she walked. 

“Indeed.” 

“What happened to her?” 

Ozpin didn’t answer immediately, as he considered how much to tell Natalie. “She was attacked by those who sought her power—pawns of Salem. They succeeded, if only partially, and she was left in this critical state. Kept on life-support until we could find a way to heal her, or transfer her powers safely.” 

“I see,” Natalie said, before gesturing toward the group with her staff. “Back up please. I’m not sure how hard this’ll be, so it’s better to be safe than sorry.” 

Ozpin nodded, and led the adults a few steps away to where they would still have a good view of the procedure, while still being close enough to step in should anything go wrong. 

“Alright,” Natalie said. “Open her up, please.” 

Glynda was quick to respond, waving her crop once, and triggering one of the many buttons visible on the pod’s control panel. A moment later, and the glass and metal covering began to lift, slowly at first, then gaining in speed until it was almost vertical, revealing Amber to the cold air of the vault. 

Natalie drew her staff close, grasping it with both hands, and closed her eyes. From where she stood, just a few feet away from the box that held Amber’s body, she then tapped her staff against the ground. Her eyes shot open, and she took one step forward before she raised her staff to the vaulted ceiling above Amber. Her mouth moved, silently pronouncing some form of incantation, and a pulse of energy similar in color to the sun burst from the center of her staff. 

There was a second-long pause, and, for the briefest of moments, Ozpin was worried that Natalie’s spell had failed. The glowing laser that appeared from the sky, expanding to envelop Amber’s entire body, dissuaded him of that notion. The light infused Amber’s whole body, and she seemed to glow with the light of the sun for a moment, before it was gone. 

“Well,” Natalie began. “That was easier than I expected.” 

Ozpin barely had time to take in that comment, before Amber jerked awake. 

**-]l[-**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Lunar New Year in a week!
> 
> Shorter chapter this time—I didn’t see too many places to write in these few episodes, nor did I really want to move onto the sneaky-spy stuff quite yet. That can wait until (probably) next chapter. I’ll be honest, not much happened this time. Jaune got a new sword, Lance started setting up flybots, and, most importantly, Amber got healed.
> 
> I do like the Amber scene. Natalie shows up, ready to heal 60K HP in a single heal, to cast Genesis and give auto-revive to the whole room, and nah, just a basic heal lmao. Felt there was some pretty fine imagery in that scene.
> 
> For your pseudo-monthly fic recs, I (finally) got around to reading _Fairy Dance of Death_, in the SAO fandom, and I’d highly recommend it for anyone into that show/fanfiction of it. Beyond that, _Brockton’s Celestial Forge_ is a pretty fun Worm fic, and the _Unwoven Threads of Fate_ is an entertaining Naruto SI fic.
> 
> Anyways, that’s it for now. Not sure when the next chapter will be out, but I’ve been getting some really good words written so far in February, so it _might_ be out faster than normal. If you enjoyed, please favorite/follow. If you have any thoughts, comments, or concrit to share, please post it as a comment, and I'll do my best to respond when I next log into Ao3!
> 
> ‘Til later.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m not especially active in the fanfiction community, at least in talking to people, but from browsing Reddit, apparently a lot of people don’t feel comfortable leaving constructive criticism if it isn’t asked for/explicitly allowed. So I’m saying it. Please feel free to give me concrit- I want to improve as a writer, and feedback is very helpful for that goal.

**A Battle Fantasy in Remnant**

**Chapter Seven**

**Canon plots are boring, except when they aren’t, and giant robots aren’t boring. Except when they are.**

**-]l[-**

“Alright!” Ruby shouted, hopping off her bunk and falling, just barely missing Weiss as she landed on the ground. “Today is the _day!_ The investigation begins now!” 

“Indeed,” Weiss muttered in agreement, strapping Myrtenaster to her new dress. “Though I feel we could take it a _bit_ more seriously.” 

“To be fair…” Yang spoke up, from where she was tightening her boot laces. “With how bad Blake was hurt, this is way more of a plan then we’d normally have.” 

Blake glanced toward the group. “You mean you were going to do this with even less of a plan? Somehow that doesn’t inspire confidence.” 

“Ehhhhhhh,” Ruby cried out. “It would’ve been _fiiiiiiine_.” 

Blake gave her team leader a deadpan stare. 

“Anyways,” Ruby whistled innocently. “Let’s go over the plan once more!” 

And so they did. Each of the girls had their assignment. Ruby and Weiss would head to the CCT Tower to search for any discrepancies in the Schnee files, Yang would find Junior at his bar and see if he knew anything about Torchwick, and finally Blake would find and sneak into a White Fang meeting to see what their plans were. 

“So what am I going to do?” 

“Ehhh!?” Ruby and Weiss yelled out in sync, as Sun flipped in through the window, followed moments later by Neptune, who introduced himself to the team.  


“What are you two doing here?” asked Blake. 

“We’re here to help get back at that Torchwick guy! Blake and I couldn’t beat him, but I bet with all of us working together he’ll stand no chance,” Sun answered. “Besides, what kind of friends would we be if we let you investigate a criminal organization all on your own?” 

“Ones in less danger,” Blake deadpanned. 

“Eh, no fun in life without a little danger. So how about it?” 

Team RWBY exchanged a glance, before Ruby responded to the two boys. “Sure, I guess. One of you can go with Blake, the other with Yang.” 

“I’ll take Sun,” Blake commented. “We’ve worked together before, so it’ll be better that way.” 

Neptune sighed. “I guess I’m with Weiss then.” 

“Shall we get going?” Yang asked. 

Everyone nodded, until it got to Sun who said, “Yeah—wait actually, if you’re looking for a White Fang meeting I might know a guy who could help with that. You guys know Lance?” 

“The super strong guy who uses guns and wears an irritating amount of black?” Yang asked. 

“That’s him,” Ruby confirmed in place of Sun. “I worked with him to help Jaune forge his new weapon.” 

Sun nodded at the sisters. “That’s guy. I met him a couple days ago, and if I remember correctly he was trying to set up a spy network. Right, Neptune?” 

“Uh-huh, it was really weird, and kinda creepy, to be honest. Not cool _at all_.” 

“Yeah anyways, I was thinking we could ask him if his robots have any idea where to find a White Fang rally.” 

“That’s a great idea!” Ruby announced. “How about you two go do that, while the rest of us head out on our own missions?” 

With that, the four non-Faunus exited the room, leaving Blake and Sun alone. 

“So… any idea where to find this guy?” 

Blake stared at him for a moment, before sighing. “Follow me.” 

**-]l[-**

“Ah, no, you just missed him. Lance is out doing something-or-other. No clue when he’ll get back,” Anna answered, from where she stood in the dormroom doorway. “Did you need him for something?” 

Sun and Blake exchanged a glance. “Mmm, just let him know that we have something to ask him, if you could? Here’s my Scroll number.” 

Anna nodded. “Gotcha, I’ll message him now. Good luck with whatever it is you’re doing, and feel free to call if you need any help.” 

“Thanks, Anna.” 

**-]l[-**

It had taken quite a few days to finally catch one of the Atlesian robots out of formation, but it had finally happened; a bot had been caught along with a crowd while following Ironwood and gradually separated from the rest of its kind, until it was meandering through alleyways a good hundred feet behind the convoy. 

Lance had grabbed the robot right as Ironwood had turned the next corner, dragging it behind a dumpster and shooting it twice with Thunder Core to disable its systems. Taking it then into an abandoned building he had found nearby, he began to dismantle it. 

Ripping apart the shell had been easy, and mostly useless. Nothing in the armor plating was especially impressive compared to the robots Lance had made. But once he made it to the core of the robot, he found the real jackpot as he inserted the chip into one of his many devices and pulled up the code 

The programming of the robot was remarkable. Not in complexity, necessarily, given how simple the robot’s actions were, but the way the code was simplified. Fitting the variables and instructions in so few lines, was quite impressive to Lance… though given how he had learned to code his robots through copying video game code, maybe he wasn’t the best person to judge. 

Anyways, the important part of the core was a transmitter that would lead anyone to Lance’s location… as well as allowing him to track it back to a receiver, hopefully leading him to the controller for these robots. 

Cleaning up his mess, and exiting the building, Lance caught sight of a pair of men in black suits turning the corner toward him. Ducking around the corner, Lance pulled out another machine—this time, one he could use to track the signal. Clicking open a small box, he placed the transmitter within, before snapping it closed. 

Time to track the signal… and ideally without getting caught by those obvious super-spies behind him. Lance had never been a spy before, but it would suck for his first outing to be marred by being caught and forced into a firefight. 

No… Lance wasn’t going to win the day via superior firepower, at least not yet. Today was a day for experimentation. 

**-]l[-**

Lance had almost succeeded in his mission when it all went wrong. 

He had been crouching on the roof of a warehouse, tracker turned off, as he peered across the gap caused by the alleyway beneath him, and through the windows of the building—another large warehouse—he had found and discovered as the hideaway of Atlas’ robots. 

He had dropped to the ground and was sneaking his way inside, following in the shadows of a pair of Atlesian soldiers leading a girl with hair just a few shades darker than Natalies. They had made in inside, and through a set of doors, before arriving in a room, furnished only by a clean white medical table, and a series of metal cabinets. 

Taking note of how the girl and her guards seemed to be distracted as the girl sat down on the table, Lance prepared to ghost his way across the room the moment they turned away from the hallway in which he hid. 

He was about to go for it, when the girl raised her hands and showed them to the guards, revealing metal inlaid beneath a lay of fake skin. Lance could recognize fakes like that easily—given the number he and his friends had run into over their journeys. 

Nonetheless, he still had places to be and robots to investigate. Alas, the distraction of discovering a robot girl had cost him his chance, and a chime from his Scroll had the Atlesian guards dashing out into the hallway, rifles leveled at where he was hiding. 

Glancing up from his Scroll, Lance attempted a calming smile, before muttering, “Screw it,” and diving out of the nearest window. Shots rang out from behind him, but Lance was moving faster than the soldiers could track, and within moments was gone from their sightlines. 

Once he was a couple blocks away and on a roof, Lance pulled up the call menu on his Scroll, and after tapping in a number, sat down to wait. 

“Yes?” Blake’s voice answered the call. 

“Yo, this is Lance. Apparently y'all needed my help with something?” 

Silence for a moment, before Blake spoke again. “About that… _I can’t believe I’m being pressured into asking for help for this…_ do you have any idea where to find a White Fang meeting place?” 

Lance thought about it, before tapping to a different window on his scroll, this one displaying the various different Spy Bots he had throughout Vale. 

“White Fang hideout… White Fang hideout…” Lance repeated as he searched. “They’re the ones wearing black with white masks? Natalie mentioned them. I think I’ve found a place.” 

“Really? Where?” 

She didn’t have to sound so surprised about it… Lance had been running a small army for a time—if he wasn’t even able to find a single terrorist hideout, then he was a real shitty terrorist himself. Disregarding the thought, he relayed the address to Blake and said, “I’ll see you there.” 

He would have to return to the warehouse and investigate the robots later. Right now, it was time for Super-Spy Lance to destroy a terrorist organization. 

Well, Blake hadn’t explicitly _said_ that was what they were doing, but what else could it be? 

**-]l[-**

At the sound of his personal Scroll chiming, James Ironwood raised an eyebrow to Ozpin, silently asking permission to check the message during their meeting. At the returned nod, he slipped the device out of his pocket and raised it to his eyes. Interesting, it was a message from the guards he had assigned to watch Pietro’s artificial daughter. What could have happened to warrant this message? 

After a rather lengthy unlocking sequence, James pulled up the message, and, after a couple re-reads and a minute spent staring at the included picture, returned his gaze to Ozpin. 

“Oz,” he began. “You were just telling me about this team MALN, yes?” 

Oz raised an eyebrow. “Indeed. They are most remarkable students, and I do believe you’ve seen that yourself with Miss Natalie, given how she is singlehandedly responsible for Amber’s current state.” 

James nodded absentmindedly, reviewing the message once again. “And, just to be sure, you described one of them—Lance, I believe—as wearing black clothes, a black overcoat, and a black hat?” 

“That is what I have seen him wearing most commonly, though I don’t pay exclusive attention to him, so he may have changed his outfit.” 

“Then,” James growled, holding his Scroll out for Ozpin to see. “Tell me why he’s sneaking into my military installations in Vale and discovering state secrets if he’s supposed to be a _student_?” 

Ozpin’s eyes widened at the picture, one from above of Lance within a darkened hallway, while a pair of Atlas’ finest held him at gunpoint. “...As you already know with Natalie, they aren’t exactly _normal_ students.” 

“By which you mean they claim to have magic.”  


“Indeed.” 

“And what does this have to do with _Lance_ breaking and entering my facilities?” 

“Well… they all have their own unique personality quirks. Perhaps Lance was just feeling adventurous?” 

“Bullshit. Nobody has quirks _that_ strange.” 

“You’d be surprised, James. You would be surprised. Take a look at Amber in her counseling right now. Would you consider arson to be a positive coping trait?” 

“...Touché. But you mean to make me believe that _all_ of team MALN is insane?” 

“There was this one time…” 

**-]l[-**

**One Day Earlier.**

“Miss Natalie!” called out Professor Port, as he stood at the front of the classroom, hands clasped behind his back. “I see that you are shirking your duties as a foremost Hunter of Grimm in favor of playing time-wasting games on your Scroll.” 

The young woman in question briefly raised her eyes from the game she was indeed playing—some kind of platformer starring a hero who used a nail of all things as a sword—and took in Port’s mildly irritated visage, before ignoring it and returning to her game. “Yep.” 

“I expected better of a model student such as you—especially given your performance in previous classes of mine,” Port continued, making his way to one end of the classroom and releasing one of several latches on a cage that contained today’s breed of Grimm—a long and sinewy snake-like Grimm with a pair of wings on its back. 

“For example, what would you do, if, when distracted by playing a game such as that on your scroll, you were attacked by a winged serpent Grimm such as this one!?” Port flung open the cage, releasing the Grimm toward Natalie, though, in the interest of safety, grabbed onto his blunderbuss and prepared to shoot down the Grimm should it begin rampaging. 

“Simple, Professor,” Natalie responded, calmly placing her Scroll on her desk, and rising to her feet in the same motion as she readied her staff, bringing it to bear against the incoming Grimm. 

“I’d kill it.” 

Light coalesced at the tip of her stone staff for a moment, before solidifying into a bright golden star that shot straight at the Grimm, easily pierced through its body, disintegrating it almost immediately, and then continued through the wall of the classroom… and the next wall after that… and the one after that too, before it was not longer visible. 

The ceiling shook slightly, and dust rained, and Natalie looked on with a blush forming. 

“Oh, I am _so sorry_ about this, Professor. I don’t know what got into me, I must’ve gotten distracted by the new game, and I wasn’t paying attention in class, and I forgot to limit the power of my spells, and…” she trailed off, realizing the rest of the class was watching her closely. 

“She was limiting the power of her spells?” Jaune asked no one in particular. If Natalie, the girl who had taken a Nevermore from the sky in a single attack had been limiting her spells, what did that mean for Matt, Jaune’s teacher? Could he release attacks so easily that they would pierce through several school walls? 

As these thoughts went through his mind, a distant explosion sounded from outside the classroom. Rushing over to the hole in the wall, the class was just barely able to see, through what should have been several intervening walls, a small explosion had erupted on one of the cliffs upon which Beacon stood… over a kilometer away. 

“Note to self: do _not_ get on Natalie’s bad side,” Jaune muttered, making his way back to his seat, and passing the seemingly bubbly student as she continued apologizing to Professor Port about her lack of attention. 

_‘Not when she can blow up a house from over a kilometer away_.’ 

**-]l[-**

**Present**

Blake stood outside of the large warehouse, Sun by her side, as she took in the place where the White Fang would supposedly be meeting. 

To the side of the two Faunus, clad in his dark black overcoat, stood Lance, rifle slung over his back, revolver held in one hand, and cigarette held to his mouth with the other, the tip glowing faintly in the evening dusk, providing the only light around. 

“Remind me how you found this place?” Sun asked, leaning on his extended staff, tail curled around it to help balance. 

“Well, after you and blue-haired-kid left me to my business, I released a few more of my drones, and sent them around Vale. Since they fly super quickly, they were able to scope out the city and find the _‘bad neighborhoods’_ ,” Lance said, doing his best to make air quotes while awkwardly holding his cigarette between two fingers. 

“So they find these neighborhoods, and while I was infiltr— _doing other things_ , I sent them to scope out the bad neighborhoods, since I know from experience that’s where the criminals gather.” 

“Were you planning on taking them out too?” Blake asked. 

“Uhh,” Lance began uncertainly. “Sure, let’s go with that.” 

Blake stared at him suspiciously, her amber eyes narrowed into slits. “Well, whatever the reason, I’m glad you had this information. It saved us a lot of time, and Yang a trip to Junior’s bar.” 

Lance coughed, and not because of his cancer-stick. “That’s probably a good thing, since I’m not sure the bar is done rebuilding from when I last visited.” 

“ _Anyways_ ,” Blake changed the subjectvery subtly. “Yang and Neptune should be here in ten minutes, so instead of waiting let’s get headed inside so we get something done.” 

She handed out two white masks in the style of the masks Grimm wore to her companions, before laying two on the ground. “For Yang,” she said. “I’m not sure how you plan to look like a Faunus, Lance, but now’s the time.” She reached up and undid her bow, releasing her Faunus ears to the cold evening wind. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Lance muttered, snuffing out his cigarette and reaching into his bag. He rummaged around for a couple moments, before stilling his arm and waiting a moment. He then removed his arm, revealing an empty hand, and turned to Blake and Sun. “What?” 

“Uh… did you actually do anything to disguise yourself?” Sun asked, skeptical. 

“Of course. I’m not like _some people_ who just waltz into a terrorist headquarters while wearing whatever shitty pirate cosplay they happen to have lying around,” Lance ranted, before turning away from the two Faunus to reveal a black tail with a white tip poking out from under his jacket. 

“You… have a tail now.” Sun reached out to touch it, only to have it flick his hand, and dodge his attempts at grabbing it. “How the hell?” 

“Don’t ask. I don’t entirely understand it myself,” Lance admitted, before slipping on his mask, and gesturing toward the door. “Shall we?” 

The trio stepped inside, Blake taking the lead, Sun in the middle, and Lance following up at the end. As they entered, they heard a voice yelling, “New recruits, keep to the right!” 

Following the instructions, the trio continued their way inside, following the line until they found themselves standing amongst a few dozen Faunus, all also wearing the same white mask. The other new recruits. 

Above them, and around them, on the balconies, were many times more, probably a few hundred White Fang soldiers. 

On the stage a few feet in front of the trio, stepped a tall, large, and well-built Faunus, his arms exposed and covered with tattoos. He stood in front of a large white sheet, the claw marks of the White Fang adorning it. 

“Thank you all for coming. For those of you who are joining us for the first time tonight, allow me to introduce a very special comrade of ours! I can assure you, he is the key to obtaining what we have fought for for so long!” 

Out from behind the curtain limped someone both Blake and Sun recognized well: Roman Torchwick. His cane tapped against the stage, and their eyes were drawn to the bandages wrapped around his stomach. 

The crowd went wild… with jeers and shouts of rage. 

He came to a stop in the center of the stage, and tapped his cane twice for silence. When it didn’t come, he cleared his throat. After that second failure, he frowned, before flipping his cane up, pointing it at the ceiling, and pulling the trigger, causing a blast to ring out through the room. 

“Blessed silence, finally,” he muttered. “I’m glad to see my current sorry state is so funny to all you _beasts_ , but I’ve finally learned. You Faunus aren’t the real monster here, the real monster is the damned cat who did this to me—the cat working with Beacon and the police.” 

“But fear no more, for nothing can stand up to the might I have with me tonight.” Roman waved his arm down, and the curtain behind him fell to the stage, revealing behind it a dark grey robot. 

It stood three times as tall as Roman, almost reaching to the top of the warehouse ceiling, and had a pair of massive grey arms, each covered with all kinds of armaments—from missiles, to guns. A massive White Fang logo was spray painted on one of the guns. 

“I want that,” Lance announced, from where he stood off to the side of the stage. 

The room had already been silent from the stunning reveal of the robot, but at Lance’s words, it quieted even further. Roman limped closer, staring at Lance, before his eyes widened at the sight of Blake and Sun. Despite their masks, he must’ve recognized their clothes… as, for some reason, Blake had yet to don her mask, and Sun was still wearing the same clothes as their last confrontation with Roman. 

“I was going to have this whole speech about how powerful this was, but given our uninvited guests, I’ll make it a demonstration instead. Get them!” Roman shouted, pointing his cane at the trio, before turning and limp-dashing toward the robot. 

“Damnit, Lance!” Sun shouted, immediately pulling his weapon out of a pocket and extending it to its full length as a staff to knock a nearby White Fang recruit onto their back. “You couldn’t have stayed silent for just a minute longer?” 

“Why?” Lance asked, seemingly unconcerned with the turn of events as he calmly took potshots at the crowd, his grey revolver spitting out blasts of lightning. “My mom told me to always tell the truth, to state my mind, and always declare my intentions to steal something. Did it with Natalie, now I’m doing it here.” 

“...With Natalie? What!?” Blake was distracted from her own fight by Lance’s words, and paid for it by taking a kick to the chest that sent her flying against a wall. 

“I’ll tell you guys later,” Lance shouted, before ripping a radio off one of his many bandoliers and shouting into it, “Poison gas, now!” 

On queue, a dozen silvery-gray bottle-shaped containers were launched into the building from somewhere outside, crashing through the walls and windows, and landing amongst the crowd of White Fang soldiers. Immediately after landing, they erupted into a noxious green gas, flowing up to the crowd of white-vested soldiers, around their masks, and into their bodies. 

Dozens upon dozens of White Fang soldiers collapsed in coughing fits, and many others chose to back off, giving Lance and his companions time to rest. Sun took advantage of this by clearing out the remaining few soldiers on their side of the gas wall via judicious use of his staff and semblance, bouncing around between them like a gymnast. 

Blake pushed herself to her feet, and stepped up next to the other two. “We need get out of here!” 

“Well, we might have a problem. The door is way over there!” Sun shouted back, pointing across the warehouse and over the surging crowd of enemies to the small door they had come in through. 

“That won’t be a problem much longer,” Blake announced, pointing across the room to the stage upon which the giant robot stood. It was moving, and one of its weapons, seemingly a large laser gun, was pointed at the group and charging. “Not if that gets to us first!” 

“Relax,” Lance muttered. “This is normally Natalie’s skill, but I’ve seen her use it enough to understand the idea…” He reached up, placing a nondescript and fair-use item shaped suspiciously suspiciously like a scouter from Drag*n Ball over his eye, before lowering it. 

“Was that supposed to help?” Sun asked, eyes wide as the laser finished charging, and was aimed at the group. 

“Give it a second, I’m not the best,” Lance retorted. A moment later, a massive shield of interlocking blue hexagons, shaped the same as your average gem design appeared in the air between the trio and the now-firing laser. It flashed bright white, and then split up, forming around the three, before disappearing into their skin. 

“Again,” Sun asked, eyeing the laser that was now in the process of being fired, and beginning to spin his staff around in an attempt to block in. “Was that supposed to help?” 

Then the laser hit the three of them, sending them flying through the air to smash against the wall of the warehouse. Said wall quickly gave way under the force of the laser, and the three went soaring through the cold night air, tumbling above the street for a good dozen meters before they hit the asphalt ground with a set of groans. 

“To answer your question, yes, it _was_ supposed to help. It increased our defense against ‘magic,’ which, for some reason, lasers count as.” 

“That explains why you guys look like you only took a hard fall right now, as opposed to, I guess, a giant laser?” a new voice commented on the situation. 

Lance propped himself up to catch sight of the new speaker, and nodded in greeting to Yang and Neptune, both standing next to Yang’s yellow-styled motorcycle. 

“Glad you two could make it,” Blake said, drawing herself to her feet and offering Sun a hand up. “Might be good to call for Ruby and Weiss too, given what we’re facing.” 

At her words, the doors to the warehouse burst open, and through them streamed the remaining White Fang forces, weapons in hand, and all pointed at the group of Huntsman students across the lot from them. Not bothering to use the door—and likely too large to do so anyways, the robot that Roman was piloting simply forced its way through the wall it had thrown Blake, Lance, and Sun through, settling into stance a few meters behind the cannon fodder troops. It shook its arms out, servos whirring as the weapons attached to the chassis of the robot powered to life. 

Yang took one look at it, before pulling out her Scroll to call her sister. As she began dialing, she looked to Lance and Blake. “Reckon I should call MALN or JNPR too?” 

Lance considered it for a moment. “Nah. JNPR still needs a bit of time to get working as a cohesive unit. As for MALN… I’m here, and if that’s not enough, then we’re in some big trouble.” 

“Dude, do you see how big that robot is?” Neptune asked. “If you think that you can take that, just _how strong are you?_ ” 

Lance considered it. “Matt and Natalie are stronger, but I hold my own pretty well. Besides, that robot is nice and all, but mine is nicer.” 

WIth those words, Lance took a step back, retrieving his radio and muttering a few commands into it. “Speaking of… Neon Valkyrie will be here in five minutes, so let’s try to not end this fight _too fast_. I want to see how well it stands up.” 

“This guy’s insane, you know that, right?” Sun whispered to Blake, as he split his staff apart and prepared for the oncoming fight. 

“Yeah,” Blake answered. “That’s been apparent for a while… though I’ll admit I’m only just now realizing how crazy that entire team is.” 

Roman didn’t bother giving a speech—though it was unclear to Blake if such a thing was even possible, given the robot he was currently inhabiting—and the White Fang didn’t want one. The moment the first rocket spiraled across the lot, only to be shot out of the air by a shot from Yang’s gauntlets, the White Fang began their charge. 

Yelling as they ran, the force of terrorists split in two, half staying in the back with their guns, rifles, and other various weapons to pester from afar, while the other half drew swords, clubs, and more to engage in a melee. 

“I’ll take the big guy,” Yang said, before she kicked forward, and, with a shot from Ember Celica, launched herself flying over the White Fang forces, easily clearing the gap and landing a high-velocity punch on Roman’s mech. 

Sun took a step forward, putting himself slightly in front of Blake, and said, “Same as last time?” 

Blake considered it, before nodding in agreement. They had worked well against Roman and the… other boy, last time they had fought together, even disregarding the result, so it would be good to stick with someone she already worked well with. 

Neptune and Lance were left alone, so Neptune took up a position in between Blake and Lance, crouched behind a car, and taking potshots with his rifle at the oncoming forces. 

And then the White Fang were there, and Blake had no more time to think of her teammates and friends, instead having to focus entirely on keeping herself and Sun safe and alive. 

**-]l[-**

Lance frowned as he knocked away the next in a long line of White Fang soldiers, firing a bolt of lightning at their chest as he did so, setting the eyesore of a white vest on fire and sending them screaming back as they were launched away. 

Honestly, he had expected better from the White Fang. 

They were an internationally feared terrorist organization, with, as best as Lance could tell, large cells in at least two of the four continents of Remnant. To add to that, Blake had been a member of the White Fang, and she was incredibly well-trained for her age, easily one of the stronger students her year at Beacon, yet none of the other soldiers held even a candle to her. 

And Yang had had the _audacity_ to challenge Roman’s robot, taking the most fun fight to herself, and leaving Lance and the rest with nothing to but fight mooks. Damn her!  


Sighing, Lance ducked a trio of bullets, and reached into his jacket, retrieving a cigarette even as he returned fire. Whipping a mook who took his choice of slow-death to be a sign of distraction, Lance took in the battlefield. Eyeing the battlefield, Lance found his target—a bear Faunus wielding some kind of fire Dust-firing (heh) weapon. Taking a few potshots at him, but making sure to miss, Lance was able to draw the attention of his target, and watched carefully as he settled into a firing stance. 

Any second now… and _now_! 

As the gunner pulled the trigger, sending a blast of flame ripping through the air toward Lance, he placed the cigarette in his mouth, stared straight at the bullet, and then tilted his head just slightly. 

Leaning back in the bullet’s wake, Lance took a moment to breath, and exhaled smoke. He had lit his cigarette on the bullet. 

Smirking at the terrorist responsible, Lance unslung his heavy rifle from his back, pointed it at the man, and pulled the trigger. 

Darkness—a blast of pure lack-of-light—streaked through the night air, almost invisible against the backdrop of shadows and old buildings, until it impacted the terrorist on the chest, sending him flying back several feet, before expanding into a large explosion, launching the next several closest White Fang members to it. 

Not a bad shot, if he did say so himself. Still… he would’ve preferred to have been fighting Roman. At least there would’ve been good banter. 

Well, all he could hope was that there was some robot left over for Neon Valkyrie to blow up, in… four minutes. 

**-]l[-**

Yang was having the time of her life. Screw beating up Junior and his goons, now she was fighting an actual _giant robot_! 

Flipping over a wide swing from one of its arms, she took a few shots at its elbow joint, Ember Celica clicking back and forth as she punched. Seeing it ready up to launch a missile—the same motion it had been making every previous time it tried—she took a few steps backward and waited for it to come. A moment later, it was launched, and Yang shot herself off of the ground, leaping straight toward the missile. She landed on it, her new boots holding firm for a moment, before she once again kicked off, sending herself flying toward the center of the robot’s mass, fist first. 

The hit echoed through the lot, stilling the fighters for a moment as they took in the picture: Yang, perched on the cockpot of the robot, one fist cocked back, and the other in place against its gunmetal grey armor, cracks extending around it like a cookie whenever Ruby squeezed too hard. 

Then the robot fell. Slowly, at first, but then picking up speed as its center of gravity changed, and the world began working against it. 

“Ah hell yeah! I’d never be able to punch someone _this_ hard at Beacon!” Yang yelled, a manic grin forming on her face, right before she launched a flurry of punches at the same spot, Ember Celica spitting fire with each attack. 

**-]l[-**

Neptune… wasn’t having the best day of his life, right now. First, he got dragged along by Sun to help out a bunch of girls he’d never even met before, then, despite getting sent with the hottest of them all, spends his time riding along a bike at terrifyingly high speeds, making him unable to appreciate the girl he was riding with. _Then_ , when everyone was getting ready to fight, not only did he not get a partner to work with, with Sun abandoning him, he also was stuck in the back, forced to watch as everyone else did cool moves and shit while he played it safe in the back with his rifle. 

Like, just fifteen feet to his left, Sun and… uh, Blake? Were fighting like they’d known each other for years, as opposed to the couple of weeks he thought it had been. When Blake danced back, being overwhelmed, Sun was immediately there, his nunchucks and staff serving as a deterrent for any oncoming White Fang...ers. That worked. Sure. 

And again, there Neptune was, ducking in and out of cover like a good little Huntsman, taking the safe shots, and not risking anything. 

And there, to his right, was… Lance, who… did he just light a cigarette on a Dust bullet? What the hell man! 

That wasn’t even drawing attention to Yang, the girl who had nearly driven Neptune to have an affair with the ground after her driving, who, nearly one hundred feet away, was still _easily_ the most noticeable person on the battlefield. Well, her and the giant robot that she was practically _manhandling_ , every impact causing a shockwave that Neptune could feel through the door of the car he was knelt against. 

Suffice it to say, Neptune felt that the folks he was fighting alongside did _not_ respect the rules of engagement as he had learned them back in Vacuo. 

**-]l[-**

Ruby ran along the highway, her cloak scattering into rose petals behind her as she used her Semblance in bursts, careful not to wear herself out, but still doing her best to make a good time. 

She had almost panicked, when she received the call from Yang, but timely intervention from Weiss had calmed her. Speaking of Weiss… Ruby had no idea where she was, having left her in the dust before rocketing off to go help her sister. 

In fact, Ruby was almost at the address Yang had given, just half-a-minute away, any moment now and the highway would be ending—was that a giant tank driving along the highway and forcing all other vehicles to yield to it? So cool! 

**-]l[-**

Her fight had taken a turn for the worse, once, instead of focusing on trying to outfight her in his robot, Roman had commanded the nearby White Fang forces to focus their fire on her, and used his greater mass and size to keep her in one general place, as well as prevent her from taking down her ranged assailants. 

Sure, she had gotten a few of them, and _eventually_ her friends would deal with the rest, but until that happened, she was out of luck, and pinned down. 

Glancing out from behind the car she had been using as cover—one that Roman had thrown at her in the first place—she saw a massive metal fist flying through the air toward her. Her eyes widened, and then it hit her. 

And not a new pun idea, but the fist. 

She spiraled through the air for a solid three seconds, before smashing into a concrete support pillar, cracking it beneath her body. She lay there for a moment, before peeling off and falling to the ground below, facefirst. 

Then her hair erupted, and she rose, leveling a glare at the robot with now glowing-red eyes.   


“Alright dude, you wanna brawl? Let’s brawl!” 

**-]l[-**

Roman Torchwick… was regretting his decision to partner with Cinder, especially with the current circumstances involving fights with trained and powerful Huntsmen. Roman was a thief, not a fighter—well he could swing a punch or shoot a kneecap, but it just didn’t feel right. 

Case in point, the blonde teenage girl currently beating up on the absolute _pinnacle_ of Atlesian military technology. Granted, it had been a much closer fight earlier, one that could have even been called in his favor, but then she just _had_ to go and use her Semblance, at least _tripling_ her striking power. 

A schoolgirl was matching a mech that walked around with enough firepower to level a city block—or more. Again, Roman felt that he should’ve stayed a small-time thief, and to have not been sucked into this whole secret war. 

Well, it’s not like he had the greatest of _choice_ in the matter. One day he and Neo had been resting in one of their many safehouses, chilling and counting lien, and then, melting straight through the heavily-armored and secured door, walked Cinder freaking Fall. She stepped up to the two of them, conjured a flame in one hand, and then declared that he would do. 

At the time, Roman was more indignant that he would only _do_. He was Roman Torchwick for God’s sake! He would _more_ than do. But, now, a few months into their ‘partnership’, Roman was realizing that perhaps he didn’t actually want to prove just how good he was at murder and treason. 

It’s not like he overly cared about the deaths he caused in the past—it was part of the business—but as he heard more and more of the plans that Cinder and her mysterious benefactor had for Vale and Beacon, he became more concerned that he should oppose them just out of a basic human instinct to survive. 

Because people who plotted to leave the world to the Grimm clearly weren’t working with humanity’s best interests at heart. 

Roman let out a grunt as the seat he sat in shook from the force of one of the blonde’s blows, the entire chassis of the Paladin shuddering around him. He worked the controls, taking the Paladin back a step, before stepping in with a punch strong enough to throw a car clean across a motorway—an attack that had worked previously in this fight—and she caught it. What the ffff—! 

It wasn’t just the crimes against humanity that were being planned that gave Roman pause, but also the idea that he would need to fight people like this girl, or that damned cat from last month. Normal people _weren’t this strong_! In fact, if his old pal Junior wasn’t spinning bullshit, that guy in the black coat in the back—just standing there and picking off the White Fang soldiers like he was in a shooting range, not the most dangerous shootout in eight years—was the one who had destroyed Junior’s entire club not too long ago. Sure, Junior’s goons weren’t _especially_ skilled, but there were still more of them then the average Huntsman student could handle. And to think that Black Coat wasn’t even bothering with Roman. The nerve! 

Oh wait, now Black Coat was looking at him. Then he shouted something, inaudible to Roman’s ears, which was followed a moment later by another, more irritated shout, and then by the girl attacking him backing off. She took a stance between the White Fang soldiers and Black Coat, seemingly in the middle of an argument even as she waded into combat. 

Roman took the chance at a respite, pulling his guard back up and reloading all his weapons as he waited for whatever his opponents were planning. A quarter of a minute passed, with Roman calling for Neo in preparation for a quick escape. He doubted he was going to win the fight even if nothing changed, not with the blonde’s Semblance, and whatever Black Coat was waiting for could _not_ be a good sign. 

Just then, Roman heard a sound, increasing in volume, and coming from the small backstreet that led to the lot where they had been fighting. Pulling on a stick, he rotated the body of the mech to get a view of whatever was coming, and was met with sight of a… _vehicle_ of some sort. 

It was black with red style lines, with a large number of blades sticking out of the front where a radiator or grill would be on a normal vehicle. Directly above those sat a pair of barrels, and to the outside of those, a pair of high-powered lights that illuminated the battlefield. The body of the vehicle was mostly a matte black, with a single barely visible line cutting across the middle, and at the back of each side, behind the lights, were a pair of… thrusters?  


Whoever had made this thing was madder than Atlas’ top scientists. 

And then the panel that made up the top slid open, and out of it appeared ||| a veritable treasure trove of weapons—ranging from smaller anti-personnel missiles, more machine guns than you could shake a bowler hat at, some kind of grenade launcher, smoking faintly green, and a single, absolutely _massive_ missile, which Roman eyeballed to be longer than he was tall, and could likely fit him inside of it. 

And then all of it was fired, and the sky lit up with a beautiful aurora of explosions. 

The last thing Roman heard was his own yell. 

**-]l[-**

Lance picked his way through the wreckage, a regretful look upon his face, a fact that Yang quickly picked up on. 

“Why so sad, gun boy?” she asked, keeping up with him easily, her eyes having returned to their natural lilac. 

“I wish I didn’t have to destroy the robot,” Lance admitted. “I’ve always wanted to pilot a robot before, but every time it ends up getting blown up…” 

“Oh. I, uh, thought you would regret attacking with such overwhelming force.” 

“Nah. Only kill is overkill,” Lance answered. “That said, I may have overkilled a bit _too_ much, given that I cannot find _any_ remains of this guy. Like sure, I hit him with everything short of my nuke, but there still should be _something_ left over. Guts, blood, ashes, his corpse still choking on poison gas… _something_!” 

Yang suddenly looked queasy, which Lance ignored. If someone couldn’t handle being in a fight that ended in obliteration of the nearby surrounding country and all its inhabitants, they shouldn’t be in a fight at all. 

“Have you considered… that he escaped the blast somehow?” 

“Without help? Unlikely. With help…” Lance reached into his coat, retrieving his Scroll and dialing Matt. “Yo, can you ask NoLegs how Roman got away from him last time? ...The guy with a hat and cane, yeah… Oh, really? That’s good to know. Thanks, man.” 

Folding the device back up, Lance turned back to Yang, and behind her, the rest of the combatants. “Apparently he was working with some kind of illusionist or hypnotist who kept messing with NoLegs’ hits and Roman’s position. Everyone spread out and search—the illusions break after a single hit!” 

With those words, Lance kicked off of the ground, launching himself up to a rooftop which overlooked the area. It had only been around a minute since he had destroyed Roman’s mech, and, given the state the man likely was in, he and any compatriots wouldn’t have been able to get very far. 

Scanning the area, Lance had just identified a possible target, and had raised his scoped rifle to his eye in preparation to shoot when he was interrupted by the _crack_ of a high caliber sniper rifle discharging. Ruby had beat him to the shot. Not bad. 

The spot that Lance had been eyeing turned out to be nothing more than a normal wall, as were the next three that Ruby shot, but by the fifth of her shots, a shattering sound was heard—and, given how the bullet had hit a brick wall, it was the sign of a Semblance. 

Immediately, everyone converged onto the spot and began looking for more illusions, all headed in a trail to escape the area. Lance frowned. He couldn’t be having that now, could he. 

So, to discourage any possible escape, Lance quickly hurried to where he estimated the escapees to be, and then, started speaking. 

“I just had Neon Valkyrie—my tank—arm an attack aimed at this area. It will fire in ten seconds, and has enough power to disintegrate a 5 block radius. I _know_ you’re within that area, and _you_ should know that I’m not bluffing. If you don’t want to be turned into nuclear ash in, oh, three seconds, then I recommend surrendering now.” 

Exactly two seconds later, as Lance pulled out his radio to trigger the launch, a nearby patch of wall faded away, revealing a young woman with brown and pink split hair, holding, in one hand Roman’s burnt, yet still breathing body, and in the other, an umbrella? Her clothes might have been white at some point in the past, but as of that moment of surrender, they were too covered with soot, dust, and burns for Lance to tell. 

He raised his pistol, sighting down at the woman for a moment, as she quickly dropped her parasol on the ground, and raised her free hand in surrender. 

Then Lance shot her, the crackle from his gun deafening in the silent night. 

**-]l[-**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was gonna try and get this one out in February, to get two out, but I failed. Maybe we’ll get one this month, but I doubt it.
> 
> First off, some quick thanks to Minaly22 for some inspiration regarding this chapter, and possibly ones in the future. 
> 
> Anyways, onto the quick (and long) chapter. In February, for some reason, I had more inspiration to write than ever before, and managed 40,000 words. That said, most of that was for a different project that may-or-may-not reach fruition (probably won’t lmao) but we’ll see.
> 
> This chapter in general was pretty fun to write, the fight at the end was enjoyable, and Ironwood is fun. However, I’m worried I’m getting too caught up in the stations of canon, and won’t be able to throw any changes into this story without them being terrible. I suppose we’ll find out in a couple chapters, once I do my best to mess with the next arc.
> 
> Next time on BFR, this cliffhanger gets resolved, and we get started on the buildup for, uh, Mountain Glenn? Is that what it’s called? Iunno. Guess it’s time to browse the wiki a bit more.
> 
> Let me know how much this chapter sucked with a comment or PM, and I’ll see you guys next time.


End file.
